under all our sufferings, and affords us comfort in all our sorrows. When adversity presses hard upon a man; when he is stripped of his possessions, and threatened with. torture when enemies persecute, and friends betray or forsake; or when pain and sickness harass him upon his bed, and sleep departs from his eyelids gracious Lord, what shall become him, if, at such an hour, a writer shall inform him there is no help for him in his God; that there is neither Redeemer nor Creator; that the universe is the sport of contending dæmons, a scene of ravage and desolation; and, instead of being "full of the loving kindness of the Lord," is peopled only with fiends and furies? What sort of a being must the writer be who could give such a representation of things; and what does he deserve at the hands of mankind? Before guilt of this infernal dye, that of cheating and thieving, of perjury, robbery, and murder, melts away, and vanishes into nothing.

On the other hand, and by way of contrast, look into that collection of divine hymns, which have been recited in the church, to the unspeakable instruction and consolation of the faithful, from age to age. I mean, as you well know, the book of Psalms. See there how the people of God, whenever any calamity befel them, either as a nation or as individuals, sustained, comforted, and cheered themselves and each other, by recollecting and meditating upon the works of the Lord which he had wrought in old times for their fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the children of Israel, his servants; the miracles in Egypt, the wonders in the field of Zion; the division of the waters at the Red Sea, and again at the river Jordan; the fall of Jericho, the discomfiture of Sisera and Jabin at the river Kishon, and the overthrow of all the idolatrous kingdoms of Canaan. While they were employed in chanting forth the praises of God for the special providences formerly vouchsafed them, their minds were comforted, their spirits were raised, their hearts were warmed, their faith was revived and invigorated; it grew strong and mighty; and they no longer supposed it possible, whatever their present sufferings might be, that he who had so often made bare his holy arm in their cause, could "ever leave them or forsake them."

III. The marks and tokens visibly impres sed upon it; how strange and how important it was.

The Scriptures relate many events of a strange kind; that is, strange, compared with the ordinary course of things, or the natural influence of causes, when the means are div proportionate, unsuitable, nay, seem eve contrary to the effect. Such events speak God to be their cause, by his invisible power supplying apparent defects in the means. In the Scripture histories we are, as it were, admitted behind the scenes, and informed that the hand of God was more immediately concerned. Thus the stars in their courses fought against Sisera: the Lord thundered upon the Philistines, and discomfited them : he made the host of Syrians to hear a noise of chariots, and horses, and a great host: he made the children of Ammon and Moab to destroy one another he smote in the camp of the Assyrians 185,000 men: under his direction one chases a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight: a stripling, with nothing more than a sling and a pebble, destroys a mighty giant, armed from head to foot: the cunning schemes of worldly and treacherous politicians, such as Abimelech, Ahithophel, and many others, are suddenly baffled and blasted, and the mischief intended falls upon the heads of those who intended it; plots with all possible caution and secrecy, contrived in darkness, are, by improbable means and unaccountable accidents, disclosed and brought to light; "a bird of the air," as the wise man speaks, "telling the matter;" or, "the stones in the wall," as it is in the prophet, "crying out," Treason! In the book of Esther we read, that the king cannot sleep; to divert him, the chronicle is called for; Mordecai's service is pitched upon, and inquiry made concerning his recompense; honor is decreed him so the cruel device of Haman to destroy the Jews comes out; and he himself is hanged on the gallows which he had erected for Mordecai.

Thus, in the desperate wickedness of this day, the plot was laid deep and dark; the implements of destruction prepared and all ready, when the heart of one of the conspirators relents towards a friend, who must have been involved in the common ruin a letter is sent to warn him; in that letter the nature of the destruction is alluded to; the letter is carried to the king, who conjectures the meaning; a search is made, and the villain seized upon the spot; who declared, that if he had been advanced a few steps farther, he would have set fire to the train, and sacrificed himself, rather than the design should have

The use which they made of the mercies vouchsafed to them in old time, should we make of the special providences vouchsafed to us, in the deliverance and preservation of our own church and nation from the various schemes concerted for the destruction of both. Among the first of these may be justly reckoned the deliverance this day commemorated, failed. as will sufficiently appear, if we consider,

from civil disorder and confusion of the worst kind, from the yoke of usurpation and slavery, from the most grievous extortion and rapine, from bloody persecutions and trials; if the upholding from utter ruin our church, which was so happily settled, and had so long flourished; if the securing our profession of God's holy truth and faith, with a pure worship, an edifying administration of his word and acraments, with a comely, wholesome, and moderate discipline; if being rescued from impious errors, scandalous practices, and superstitious

Occurrences like these, containing in them somewhat, though not strictly miraculous, yet truly admirable; turning out of the ordinary stream of human affairs, as miracles surmount the course of nature, most reasonably may, most justly should, be ascribed to the special operation of Him, "who only doeth wondrous things; who breaketh the arm of the wicked, and weakeneth the strength of the mighty; who disappointeth the devices of the crafty, so that their hands cannot perform their enterprise; who is known by the judgment that he executeth, when the wick-rites, with merciless violence forced upon us; ed is snared by the work of his own hand." This may be farther evinced from the importance of the deliverance.

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if a continuance of the most desirable comforts and conveniences of our lives; if all these are benefits, then was the deliverance of this day one of the most beneficial and important that ever was granted by Heaven to any nation. And notwithstanding the obscurity or intricacy that may sometimes appear in the course of providence; notwithstanding any general exceptions that may, by perverse incredulity, be alleged against the conduct of things here below; there are marks very observable, and this event is full of them, whereby, if we consider wisely, with due attention, diligence, and impartia

To entitle every little trifling thing that happens to a special providence would be levity; to father upon the Almighty the mischiefs issuing from our own sin and folly, would be something worse; but to ascribe every grand and beneficial event to his good hand, has ever been reputed wisdom and justice. It was a prevailing opinion even among the heathen, that whatever did bring great benefit to mankind, was not effected without divine goodness toward men.* We know, indeed, that God doth not disregard lity, we may discern and understand that it anything, but watches over all by his general was "the Lord's doing, and it was marvellous and ordinary providence. He thereby in our eyes." "clothes the grass of the field; he provideth for the raven his food, and the young lions seek their meat from him ;" without his care 66 a sparrow does not fall to the ground ;" and by it" the hairs of our head are all numbered." But the hand of his more special providence is chiefly employed in managing affairs of moment and consequence to us; such as great counsels and undertakings; revolutions and changes of state; war and peace; victory and good success; the protection of princes, and preservation of his people. When, therefore, any remarkable event, highly conducing to the public good of church and state, doth manifest itself, the accomplishment of it should be attributed to God's own hand. When any pernicious enterprise, levelled against the safety of prince and people, is disappointed and brought to naught, surely it is fit we should profess and say, "The righteous Lord hath hewn the snares of the ungodly in pieces."

And if the preservation of the king and royal family, with the three estates in parliament assembled; † if the freeing our country

Balbus, in Cic. de Natura Deorum, lib. ii. Such is the language in the rubrick in the form of service for this day; whence it must occur to the reader, that the doctrine which makes the king one

For these and all other benefits which have been in old time conferred, and often since preserved and handed down to us of the present generation, let us rejoice, and be glad, and give honor to him who hath so conferred and so preserved them. And let our affections and our lives harmonize with our voices, when we say,

"Blessed be the Lord, who hath not given us over for a prey unto their teeth. Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowler; the snare is broken, and we are delivered.

Hallelujah! Salvation, and glory, and power unto the Lord our God; for true and righteous are his judgements.

"Great and marvellous are thy works, O Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints.

"Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who only doeth wondrous things; and blessed be his glorious name for ever; and let the whole earth be filled with his glory. Amen and Amen."

of the three estates in Parliament, is an innovation, introduced by republican writers, who diminish the crown to raise the people, and in the end to overturn the government.

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DISCOURSE LI.

GOD THE PRESERVER OF PRINCES.

PSALM CXLIV. 10.

It is He that giveth salvation unto kings.

Ir was a fine eulogium passed at once on the head and heart of the greatest of commanders by the most celebrated of orators, that injuries were the only things he was capable of forgetting. The generality of mankind are liable, alas! to be reproached with a conduct of a very different nature. They remember most things better than benefits; those, especially, which have been conferred upon them by their heavenly Father and Friend." Praise the Lord, O my soul," says David elsewhere," and forget not all his benefits." A propensity to forget is evidently implied by this warm and spirited exhortation not to do so. Thoroughly sensible of such a propensity in human nature, the best writers on the practical and devotional part of religion have prescribed the use of a diary, in which the many mercies and deliverances we from time to time experience may be regularly entered; that so, by recurring frequently to such a register, the traces of them, in danger otherwise of being obliterated by the cares and pleasures of life, may be refreshed and renewed in our minds.

The preceding observations are intended to justify the wisdom of our ancestors, in appointing these annual commemoratios of blessings, thus for ever registered in our national diary that they may not be neglected and forgotten. Nor let us by any means grow weary of celebrating them; but, even to the years of many generations, still continue, with thankful hearts, to exclaim-“ We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us, what thou hast done in their days, and in the old time before them!" For though the mercy be old, the remembrance of it should be for ever young-renewed in our minds, from year to year, and from age to age; while the fathers to the children make known the loving kindness of the Lord, and speak good of his name, by contemplating afresh the doctrine of the day, and the fact in which it is exemplified. The former of these is contained in the words of the text, which, when opened and illustrated, will prepare the way for a display of the latter—“I will sing a new song unto thee, O God; upon a psaltery and an instrument of ten strings will I sing praises unto thee, who givest salvation unto kings."

If the case be so bad with individuals in this respect, there is no reason to suppose it better with communities; where, the benefit It is the high prerogative of the Almighty being shared by so many, each is apt to con- to give salvation, to preserve and deliver. sider his own portion of it as small, and scar-" I, even I am the Lord, and beside me cely worth notice; where that which should there is no Saviour." The divine mercy, be done by every body, is often done by no- like the spacious vault of heaven, extends body; and where the guilt of ingratitude, like to all, and comprehends within its fostering the value of the benefit, by being divided, bosom the whole creation of God. Thou, seems, in the conscience of every single mem- Lord wilt save both man and beast." But ber, to be diminished, a d, as it were, brought its chief object is man, the lord of this to nothing. The astonishing instances of for- lower world; so that still, comparatively, getfulness among the ancient people of God, we may ask with the apostle-"Doth God recorded and reproved for our admonition in take care for oxen; or saith he it not rather the Scriptures of truth, will occur to your for our sakes?" And, for this reason, Job mads; and parallel instances among Chris- cries out, emphatically, "I have sinued, what tians, notwithstanding such admonition, will shall I do unto thee, O thou preserver of present themselves to him who is disposed to MEN ?" behold them.

He who is the preserver of men, above

other creatures, is also the preserver of | kings, above other men. This point was acknowledged among the heathen, whose leaders are always represented, by the most ancient of the poets, as acting under the immediate guidance and protection of their respective tutelary deities. But we have a more sure word. "Great deliverance giveth he to his king; he is the saving health of his anointed; he is wonderful among the kings of the earth; he giveth salvation unto kings."

Let us inquire into the reasons why God is pleased thus to inanifest an especial favor to those who bare rule in the kingdoms of

men.

But there is another reason. Kings, while employed in the due and faithful execution of their office, have a peculiar claim to his favor and protection, because they are, as the apostle speaks, his ministers, his servants, his delegates and representatives upon earth, attending continually, as such, upon this very thing. And even among men, every superior thinks himself obliged to defend, and vindicate from contempt and insult, those who are acting under him, and by virtue of his commission. Shall not, therefore, the Judge of all the world do right? The honor of the ambassador is the honor of the prince who sends him; and we know who it is that saith, " By ME kings reign." On this account he hath so often made bare his holy arm in the sight of the people, and hath "given salvation unto kings."

Will

As medicine supposes disease, deliverance must imply danger. From troubles and perils no station is exempt. "Great travail is created for every man, and an heavy yoke is upon the sons of Adam; from Nor is it for their sakes only that salvahim that sitteth on the throne of glory, unto tion is thus given to them. The felicity him that is humbled in earth and ashes." of a whole nation is involved in that of its But this is not all. Great men not only governor. The salvation given to the head share with others the calamities of life, but diffuses itself to the members of the body their share is in proportion to their great- politic, to the very least and lowest of them. ness. Of what materials are the annals of All feel the benefit of government, instituhistory composed, but the continual perils ted for the good of all; and no government and misfortunes of princes? When the was ever so badly administered, as not to storm arises, the loftiest cedars first and be a blessing, if compared with anarchy, chiefly feel its force; and therefore they which multiplies one tyrant into ten thouneed an extraordinary degree of strength sand. Society, which implies government, and support. God is mighty to save kings, is the natural state of mankind; all are because there is one mighty to destroy them, born under it; and it is happy for them that and whose interest it is to do so. By gov- they are so; they could not otherwise be ernment vigorously administered order is reared from infancy to manhood, or partake maintained in the world; then piety and in security of any of those blessings now virtue take root downwards, and bear fruit poured in such profusion around us. upwards; then the kingdom of heaven is ingly or unwillingly, the people must be established, and extends itself upon earth. governed; and, whatever they may fancy But when there is "no king in Israel," and to the contrary, by some or other they each man may do, unpunished, "that which always were governed, and always will be seems right in his own eyes," an entrance governed. Their well-being, nay, their is ministered for every thing ungodly and very being, as a people, depend upon it. immortal, for every species of violence, and "Let supplication be made for kings, and of folly; and the empire of Satan prevails. for all that are in authority "-Why?— What wonder, then, that he should be the "That we may lead a quiet and peaceable spirit which worketh in the children of dis- life, in all godliness and honesty ;" that we obedience, exciting tumults and rebellions, may be safe from harm, and have leisure to delighting in the noise of these waves and be good, and to do good. The Jews, even the madness of the people, and giving it in when captives in Babylon, were commanded charge, like the Syrian of old, to his cap- to pray for the prosperity of their oppressor tains, Fight neither with small nor great, and his city for the same reason, that “in save only against the king?" And what its peace they might have peace." wonder, again, if this be the case, that God the connection between government and should interpose, to save and deliver those felicity is no where marked out in a more who are thus powerfully and unequally as- expressive and beautiful manner than in the sailed? Verily, he would do it, for this verses of our Psalm immediately following reason alone, since it is his glory to resist the text. "Rid me, and deliver me," says the proud, and to put down the mighty from the Israelitish monarch, "from the hand of strange children, whose mouth speaketh

their seats.

But

vanity, and their right hand is a right hand ignorance, of persecutions, tortures, and of falsehood."Wherefore does the king massacres; the whole kingdom a perfect thus entreat to be delivered? Plainly, on Aceldama, a field of blood for generations to account of the benefits that would be thence come, without measure, and without end. derived to the community over which, by From all these and other calamities (if others God's appointment, he presided-"That there are,) worse than fancy can form or our sons may be as plants grown up in their fear itself conceive, was this our country youth; that our daughters may be as cor-saved by the discovery of the infernal maner stones, polished after the similitude of chinations against it. a palace, that our garners may be full, affording all manner of store; that our sheep may bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our streets: that our oxen may be strong to labor; that there be no breaking in, or going out; that there be no complaining in our streets. Happy is that people, which," by the salvation given to their king, "is in such a case; yea, happy is that people, whose God is the Lord," that can give salvation to him. Such, then, are the reasons of that especial favor, which divine Providence, in so many instances, hath shown towards the persons of princes; because of the danger they are continually in from the adversary; because of the relation they bear to him with whose authority they are invested; and because in their safety and happiness consist those of the people under them.

There is no occasion to particularize the circumstances of this discovery. They have been often recounted, and are well known. And when we reflect upon the unheard of iniquity of the plot, together with the confusion and misery intended to have been brought on a mighty nation, and happily prevented by such discovery, he must be very blind indeed who does not perceive the finger of God in it, and thoroughly stupid and insensible, who does not on that account, praise and magnify his holy name.

But there is a circumstance behind, which deserves consideration at all times, and more especially in the present. I mean, the principle, the motive, which gave birth to this diabolical design. For if you ask, why the governors of three kingdoms were to be thus cut off at one stroke, and dispersed to the four winds; the answer is, They were heretics-the church of Rome, in the plenitude of her power and pride, had so denominated them, and judged them not fit to live any longer upon the earth.

And thus much for the doctrine contained in the text. The application to the deliverance this day commemorated will best be made by considering how great the salvation-how evidently the gift of God. That so detestable a scheme should have The salvation must be estimated by the entered into the heart of man upon any destruction intended to have been wrought; pretence, is disgrace enough to human naand that was great indeed! great, beyond ture.-But that it should be formed upon any parallel in the annals of mankind! Ar- the pretence of religion-of the Christian mies have met, and slaughtered each other religion-this is making sin to become inin battle; kings have fallen in the field, deed exceeding sinful! From the intended they have been assassinated, they have been effects of the conspiracy our country was poisoned-one has been tried as a rebel saved by the discovery of it, previously to against the majesty of the people, and exe- its execution. But where is the balm to cuted for high treason, before his own heal the wounds, which religion has thereby palace, by his own subjects! But a design received, in the house of men pretending to to destroy the whole legislature, king, lords, be its best, nay, its only true friends? The and commons, at a single blast, and leave efforts of all its adversaries put together, not a wreck behind-this certainly was a never effected one hundredth part of the master stroke of villany, black as the mate- mischief caused by the contests and dissenrials with which it was to have been accom- sions, the wars and tumults, plots and assasplished, dark as the place where those ma- sinations, excited and carried on by such terials were deposited. Blessed be God, it friends, under the notion of promoting its miscarried!-But who can paint in their welfare and advancemeut in the world. He proper colors the consequences that must who reads the account of such proceedings, have attended its success? An instantane-feels his indignation rising not only against ous and total dissolution of all government, the men, but against the faith professed by introductory to such a scene as never was the perpetrators of these enormities; and beheld, of broils and disorders, of usurpa- he is tempted to exclaim, as some have extion and slavery, of extortion and rapine, claimed "If this be Christianity, let my of faction and fury, of superstition and soul rest with the philosophers." Fully VOL. II

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