_Britain_’s Mercies, and _Britain_’s Duty.
Preached at _Philadelphia_, on _Sunday, August 24, 1746_. and
occasioned by the Suppression of the late unnatural Rebellion.
PSALM cv. 45.
_That they might observe his Statutes and keep his Laws._
MEN, brethren, and fathers, and all ye to whom I am about to preach
the kingdom of GOD, I suppose you need not be informed, that being
indispensibly obliged to be absent on your late thanksgiving-day, I
could not shew my obedience to the governor’s proclamation, as my own
inclination led me, or as might justly be expected from, and demanded
of me. But as the occasion of that day’s thanksgiving is yet, and
I trust ever will be, fresh in our memory, I cannot think that a
discourse on that subject can even now be altogether unseasonable. I
take it for granted, further, that you need not be informed, that among
the various motives which are generally urged to enforce obedience
to the divine commands, that of love is the most powerful and cogent.
The terrors of the law may affright and awe, but love dissolves and
melts the heart. “The love of CHRIST,” says the great apostle of the
_Gentiles_, “constraineth us.” Nay, love is so absolutely necessary for
those that name the name of CHRIST, that without it, their obedience
cannot truly be stiled evangelical, or be acceptable in the sight of
GOD. “Although, (says the apostle) I bestow all my goods to feed the
poor, and though I give my body to be burnt, and have not charity,”
(i. e. unless unfeigned love to GOD, and to mankind for his great
name’s sake, be the principle of such actions, howsoever it may benefit
others) “it profiteth me nothing.” This is the constant language of the
lively oracles of GOD. And, from them it is equally plain, that nothing
has a greater tendency to beget and excite such an obediential love in
us, than a serious and frequent consideration of the manifold mercies
we receive time after time from the hands of our heavenly Father. The
royal psalmist, who had the honour of being stiled, “the man after
GOD’s own heart,” had an abundant experience of this. Hence it is,
that whilst he is musing on the divine goodness, the fire of divine
love kindles in his soul; and, out of the abundance of his heart,
his mouth speaketh such grateful and extatic language as this. “What
shall I render unto the LORD for all his mercies? Bless the LORD, O
my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name.” And why?
“who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases,
who redeemeth thy life from destruction, who crowneth thee with loving
kindness and tender mercies.” And when the same holy man of GOD had
a mind to stir up the people of the _Jews_ to set about a national
reformation, as the most weighty and prevailing argument he could make
use of for that purpose, he lays before them, as it were, in a draught,
many national mercies, and distinguishing deliverances, which have
been conferred upon and wrought out for them, by the most high GOD.
The psalm to which the words of our text belong, is a pregnant proof
of this; it being a kind of epitome or compendium of the whole _Jewish_
history: at least it contains an enumeration of many signal and
extraordinary blessings the _Israelites_ had received from GOD, and
also the improvement they were in duty bound to make of them, “Observe
his statutes and keep his laws.”
To run through all the particulars of the psalm, or draw a parallel
(which might with great ease and justice be done) between GOD’s
dealings with us and the _Israelites_ of old: To enumerate all the
national mercies bestowed upon, and remarkable deliverances wrought
out for the kingdoms of _Great-Britain_ and _Ireland_, from the infant
state of _William_ the _Norman_ to their present manhood, and more
than _Augustan_ maturity, under the auspicious reign of our rightful
Sovereign King _George_ the second; howsoever pleasing and profitable
it might be at any other time, would, at this juncture, prove, if not
an irksome, yet an unreasonable undertaking.
The occasion of the late solemnity, I mean the suppression of a most
horrid and unnatural rebellion, will afford more than sufficient matter
for a discourse of this nature, and furnish us with abundant motives to
love and obey that glorious _Jehovah_, who giveth salvation unto kings,
and delivers his people from the hurtful sword.
Need I make an apology, before this auditory, if, in order to see
the greatness of our late deliverance, I should remind you of the
many unspeakable blessings which we have for a course of years
enjoyed, during the reign of his present Majesty, and the gentle,
mild administration under which we live? Without justly incurring the
censure of giving flattering titles, I believe all who have eyes to
see, and ears to hear, and are but a little acquainted with our public
affairs, must acknowledge, that we have one of the best of Kings. It is
now above nineteen years since he began to reign over us. And yet, was
he seated on a royal throne, and were all his subjects placed before
him, was he to address them as _Samuel_ once addressed the _Israelites_,
“Behold here I am, old and grey-headed, witness against me before the
LORD, whose ox have I taken? Or whose ass have I taken? Or whom have
I defrauded? Whom have I oppressed?” They must, if they would do him
justice, make the same answer as was given to _Samuel_, “Thou hast not
defrauded us, nor oppressed us.” What _Tertullus_, by way of flattery,
said to _Felix_, may with the strictest justice be applied to our
sovereign, “By thee we enjoy great quietness, and very worthy deeds
have been done unto our nation by thy providence.” He has been indeed
_Pater Patriæ_, a father to our country, and though old and grey-headed,
has jeoparded his precious life for us in the high places of the field.
Nor has he less deserved the great and glorious title, which the LORD
promises, that kings should sustain in the latter days, I mean, “a
nursing father of the church.” For not only the Church of _England_,
as by law established, but all denominations of christians whatsoever,
have enjoyed their religious as well as civil liberties. As there
has been no authorized oppression in the state, so there has been no
publicly allowed persecution in the church. We breathe indeed in free
air; as free (if not freer) both as to temporals and spirituals, as
any nation under heaven. Nor is the prospect likely to terminate in his
majesty’s death, which I pray GOD to defer. Our princesses are disposed
of to protestant powers. And we have great reason to be assured,
that the present heir apparent, and his consort, are like minded with
their royal father. And I cannot help thinking, that it is a peculiar
blessing vouchsafed us by the King of kings, that his present Majesty
has been continued so long among us. For now, his immediate successor
(though his present situation obliges him, as it were, to lie dormant)
has great and glorious opportunities, which we have reason to think
he daily improves, of observing and weighing the national affairs,
considering the various steps and turns of government, and consequently
of laying in a large fund of experience, to make him a wise and great
prince, if ever GOD should call him to sway the _British_ sceptre.
Happy art thou, O _England_! Happy art thou, O _America_, who on every
side art thus highly favoured!
But, alas! how soon would this happy scene have shifted, and a
melancholy gloomy prospect have succeeded in its room, had the rebels
gained their point, and a popish abjured pretender been forced upon the
_British_ throne! For, supposing his birth not to be spurious, (as we
have great reason to think it really was) what could we expect from one,
descended from a father, who, when Duke of _York_, put all _Scotland_
into confusion; and afterwards, when crowned King of _England_, for
his ♦arbitrary and tyrannical government, both in church and state, was
justly obliged to abdicate the throne, by the assertors of _British_
liberty? Or, supposing the horrid plot, first hatched in hell, and
afterwards nursed at _Rome_, had taken place; supposing, I say, the old
Pretender should have obtained the triple crown, and have transferred
his pretended title (as it is reported he has done) to his eldest son,
what was all this for, but that, by being advanced to the popedom,
he might rule both son and subjects with less controul, and by their
united interest, keep the three kingdoms of _England_, _Scotland_, and
_Ireland_, in greater vassallage to the see of _Rome_? Ever since this
unnatural rebellion broke out, I have looked upon the young Pretender
as the phaeton of the present age. He is ambitiously and presumptuously
aiming to seat himself in the throne of our rightful sovereign King
_George_, which he is no more capable of keeping, than _Phaeton_ was
to guide the chariot of the sun; and had he succeeded in his attempt,
like him, would only have set the world on fire. It is true, to do
him justice, he has deserved well of the Church of _Rome_, and, in all
probability, will hereafter be canonized amongst the noble order of
their fictitious saints. But, with what an iron rod we might expect
to have been bruised, had his troops been victorious, may easily be
gathered from those cruel orders said to be found in the pockets of
some of his officers, “Give no quarters to the Elector’s troops.” Add
to this, that there was great reason to suspect, that, upon the first
news of the success of the rebels, a general massacre was intended. So
that if the LORD had not been on our side, _Great Britain_, not to say
_America_, would, in a few weeks or months, have been an _Aceldama_, a
field of blood.
♦ “arbritrary” replaced with “arbitrary”
Besides, was a _Popish_ Pretender to rule over us, instead of being
represented by a free parliament, and governed by laws made by their
consent, as we now are; we should shortly have had only the shadow of
one, and it may be, no parliament at all. This is the native product
of a _Popish_ government, and what the unhappy family, from which this
young adventurer pretends he descended, has always aimed at. Arbitrary
principles he has sucked in with his mother’s milk, and if he had been
so honest, instead of that immature motto upon his standard, _Tandem
triumphans_, only to have put, _Stet pro ratione Voluntas_, he had
given us a short, but true portrait of the nature of his intended, but
blessed be GOD, now defeated reign. And why should I mention, that the
sinking of the national debt, or rending away the funded property of
the people, and the dissolution of the present happy union between the
two kingdoms, would have been the immediate consequences of his success,
as he himself declares in his second manifesto, dated from _Holy-rood
House_? These are evils, and great ones too; but then they are only
evils of a temporary nature. They chiefly concern the body, and must
necessarily terminate in the grave. But, alas! what an inundation of
spiritual mischiefs, would soon have overflowed the Church, and what
unspeakable danger should we and our posterity have been reduced to
in respect to our better parts, our precious and immortal souls? How
soon would whole swarms of monks, dominicans and friars, like so many
locusts, have overspread and plagued the nation; with what winged
speed would foreign titular bishops have posted over, in order to take
possession of their respective sees? How quickly would our universities
have been filled with youths who have been sent abroad by their
_Popish_ parents, in order to drink in all the superstitions of the
church of _Rome_? What a speedy period would have been put to societies
of all kinds, for promoting christian knowledge, and propagating the
gospel in foreign parts? How soon would our pulpits have every where
been filled with these old antichristian doctrines, free-will, meriting
by works, transubstantiation, purgatory, works of supererogation,
passive-obedience, non-resistance, and all the other abominations of
the whore of _Babylon_? How soon would our protestant charity schools
in _England_, _Scotland_ and _Ireland_, have been pulled down, our
Bibles forcibly taken from us, and ignorance every where set up as
the mother of devotion? How soon should we have been deprived of
that invaluable blessing, liberty of conscience, and been obliged to
commence (what they falsely call) catholicks, or submit to all the
tortures which a bigoted zeal, guided by the most cruel principles,
could possibly invent? How soon would that mother of harlots have made
herself once more drunk with the blood of the saints? And the whole
tribe even of free-thinkers themselves, been brought to this dilemma,
either to die martyrs for, (although I never yet heard of one that did
so) or, contrary to all their most avowed principles, renounce their
great _Diana_, unassisted, unenlightened reason? But I must have done,
lest while I am speaking against antichrist, I should unawares fall
myself, and lead my hearers into an antichristian spirit. True and
undefiled religion will regulate our zeal, and teach us to treat even
the man of sin with no harsher language than that which the angel gave
to his grand employer Satan, “The LORD rebuke thee.”
Glory be to GOD’s great name! the LORD has rebuked him; and that too
at a time when we had little reason to expect such a blessing at GOD’s
hands. My dear hearers, neither the present frame of my heart, nor
the occasion of your late solemn meeting, lead me to give you a detail
of our public vices. Though, alas! they are so many, so notorious,
and withal of such a crimson-dye, that a gospel minister would not
be altogether inexcusable, was he, even on such a joyful occasion,
to lift up his voice like a trumpet, to shew the British nation their
transgression, and the people of _America_ their sin. However, though
I would not cast a dismal shade upon the pleasing picture the cause of
our late rejoicings set before us; yet thus much may, and ought to be
said, that as GOD has not dealt so bountifully with any people as with
us, so no nation under heaven has dealt more ungratefully with Him.
We have been like _Capernaum_, lifted up to heaven in privileges, and
for the abuse of them, like her, have deserved to be thrust down into
hell. How well soever it may be with us, in respect to our civil and
ecclesiastical constitution, yet in regard to our morals, _Isaiah_’s
description of the _Jewish_ polity is too applicable, “The whole head
is sick, the whole heart is faint; from the crown of the head to the
sole of our feet, we are full of wounds and bruises, and putrifying
sores.” We have, _Jeshurun_-like, waxed fat and kicked. We have played
the harlot against GOD, both in regard to principles and practices.
“Our gold is become dim, and our fine gold changed.” We have crucified
the Son of GOD afresh, and put him to an open shame. Nay, CHRIST has
been wounded in the house of his friends. And every thing long ago
seemed to threaten an immediate storm. But, O the long-suffering and
goodness of GOD to us-ward! When all things seemed ripe for destruction,
and matters were come to such a crisis, that GOD’s praying people began
to think, that though _Noah_, _Daniel_ and _Job_, were living, they
would only deliver their own souls; yet then in the midst of judgment
the Most High remembered mercy, and when a popish enemy was breaking in
upon us like a flood, the LORD himself graciously lifted up a standard.
This to me does not seem to be one of the most unfavourable
circumstances which have attended this mighty deliverance; nor do
I think you will look upon it as a circumstance altogether unworthy
your observation. Had this cockatrice indeed been crushed in the egg,
and the young Pretender driven back upon his first arrival, it would
undoubtedly have been a great blessing. But not so great as that for
which you lately assembled to give GOD thanks: for then his Majesty
would not have had so good an opportunity of knowing his enemies, or
trying his friends. The _British_ subjects would in a manner have lost
the fairest occasion that ever offered to express their loyalty and
gratitude to the rightful sovereign. _France_ would not have been so
greatly humbled; nor such an effectual stop have been put, as we trust
there now is, to any such further _Popish_ plot, to rob us of all that
is near and dear to us. “Out of the eater therefore hath come forth
meat, and out of the strong hath come forth sweetness.” The Pretender’s
eldest son is suffered not only to land in the _North-West Highlands_
in _Scotland_, but in a little while he becomes a great band. This for
a time is not believed, but treated as a thing altogether incredible.
The friends of the government in those parts, not for want of loyalty,
but of sufficient authority to take up arms, could not resist him. He
is permitted to pass on with his terrible banditti, and, like the comet
that was lately seen, spreads his baleful influences all around him.
He is likewise permitted to gain a short-liv’d triumph by a victory
over a body of our troops at _Preston-Pans_, and to take a temporary
possession of the metropolis of _Scotland_. Of this he makes his boast,
and informs the public, that “Providence had hitherto favoured him with
wonderful success, led him in the way to victory, and to the capital
of the antient kingdom, though he came without foreign aid.” Nay, he
is further permitted to press into the very heart of _England_. But
now the Almighty interposes. Hitherto he was to go, and no further.
Here were his malicious designs to be staid. His troops of a sudden
are driven back. Away they post to the _Highlands_, and there they are
suffered not only to increase, but also to collect themselves into a
large body, that having, as it were, what _Caligula_ once wished _Rome_
had, but one neck, they might be cut off with one blow.
The time, manner, and instrument of this victory, deserves our notice.
It was on a general fast-day, when the clergy and good people of
_Scotland_ were lamenting the disloyalty of their perfidious countrymen,
and, like _Moses_, lifting up their hands, that _Amalek_ might not
prevail. The victory was total and decisive. Little blood was spilt
on the side of the Royalists. And, to crown all, Duke _William_, his
Majesty’s youngest son, has the honour of first driving back, and then
defeating the rebel-army. A prince, who in his infancy and youth, gave
early proofs of an uncommon bravery and nobleness of mind; a prince,
whose courage has increased with his years. Who returned wounded
from the battle of _Dettingen_, behaved with surprizing bravery at
_Fontenoy_, and now, by a conduct and magnanimity becoming the high
office he sustains, like his glorious predecessor the Prince of
_Orange_, has delivered three kingdoms from the dread of popish
cruelty, and arbitrary power. What renders it still more remarkable is,
The day on which his Highness gained this victory, was the day after
his birth-day, when he was entering on the 26th year of his age; and
when _Sullivan_, one of the Pretender’s privy-council, like another
_Ahitophel_, advised the rebels to give our soldiers battle, presuming
they were surfeited and over-charged with their yesterday’s rejoicings,
and consequently unfit to make any great stand against them. But, glory
be to GOD, who catches the wise in their own craftiness! his counsel,
like _Ahitophel_’s, proves abortive. Both General and soldiers were
prepared to meet them. “GOD taught their hands to war, and their
fingers to fight,” and brought the Duke, after a deserved slaughter
of some thousands of the rebels, with most of his brave soldiers,
victorious from the field.
If we then take a distinct view of this notable transaction, and trace
it in all the particular circumstances that have attended it, I believe
we must with one heart and voice confess, that if it be a mercy for a
state to be delivered from a worse than a _Catiline_’s conspiracy, or a
church to be rescued from a hotter than a _Dioclesian_ persecution; if
it be a mercy to be delivered from a religion that turns plough-shares
into swords, and pruning-hooks into spears, and makes it meritorious
to shed protestant blood; if it be a mercy to have all our present
invaluable privileges, both in church and state, secured to us more
than ever; if it be a mercy to have these great things done for us,
at a season, when for our crying sins, both church and state justly
deserved to be overturned; and if it be a mercy to have all this
brought about for us, under GOD, by one of the blood-royal, a prince
acting with an experience far above his years; if any, or all of these
are mercies, then have you lately commemorated one of the greatest
mercies that ever the glorious GOD vouchsafed to the _British_ nation.
And shall we not rejoice and give thanks? Should we refuse, would not
the stones cry out against us? Rejoice then we may and ought: but,
O let our rejoicing be in the LORD, and run in a religious channel.
This, we find, has been the practice of GOD’s people in all ages. When
he was pleased, with a mighty hand, and out-stretched arm, to lead
the _Israelites_ through the _Red-Sea_, as on dry ground, “Then sang
_Moses_ and the children of _Israel_; and _Miriam_ the prophetess, the
sister of _Aaron_, took a timbrel in her hand, and all the women went
out after her. And _Miriam_ answered them, Sing ye to the LORD; for
he hath triumphed gloriously.” When GOD subdued _Jabin_, the King of
_Canaan_, before the children of _Israel_, “then sang _Deborah_ and
_Barak_ on that day, saying, ‘Praise ye the LORD for the avenging
of _Israel_.’” When the ark was brought back out of the hands of
the _Philistines_, _David_, though a king, danced before it. And, to
mention but one instance more, which may serve as a general directory
to us on this and such-like occasions: when the great Head of the
church had rescued his people from the general massacre intended to
be executed upon them by a cruel and ambitious _Haman_, “_Mordecai_
sent letters unto all the _Jews_ that were in all the provinces of the
King _Ahasuerus_ both nigh and far, to establish among them, that they
should keep the fourteenth day of the month _Adar_, and the fifteenth
day of the same yearly, as the days wherein the _Jews_ rested from
their enemies, and the month which was turned unto them from sorrow
unto joy, and from mourning into a good day: that they should make them
days of feasting and joy, and of sending portions one to another, and
gifts to the poor.” And why should we not go and do likewise?
And shall we not also, on such an occasion, express our gratitude to,
and make honourable mention of, those worthies who have signalized
themselves, and been ready to sacrifice both lives and fortunes at this
critical juncture?
This would be to act the part of those ungrateful _Israelites_, who
are branded in the book of GOD, for not shewing kindness to the house
of “_Jerub-Baal_, namely _Gideon_, according to all the goodness which
he shewed unto _Israel_.” Even a _Pharaoh_ could prefer a deserving
_Joseph_, _Ahasuerus_ a _Mordecai_, and _Nebuchadnezzar_ a _Daniel_,
when made instruments of signal service to themselves and people.
“My heart, says _Deborah_, is towards (_i. e._ I have a particular
veneration and regard for) the Governors of _Israel_ that offered
themselves willingly. And blessed above women shall _Jael_ the wife
of _Heber_ the _Kenite_ be; for she put her hand to the nail, and her
right-hand to the workman’s hammer, and with the hammer she smote
_Sisera_, she smote off his head, when she had pierced and stricken
through his temples.” And shall we not say, “Blessed above men let
his Royal Highness the Duke of _Cumberland_ be; for through his
instrumentality, the great and glorious JEHOVAH hath brought mighty
things to pass?” Should not our hearts be towards the worthy Archbishop
of _York_, the Royal Hunters, and those other _English_ heroes who
offered themselves so willingly? Let the names of _Blakeney_, _Bland_,
and _Rea_, and all thole who waxed valiant in fight on this important
occasion, live for ever in the _British_ annals. And let the name of
that great, that incomparable brave soldier of the King, and a good
soldier of JESUS CHRIST, Colonel _Gardiner_, (excuse me if I here
drop a tear: he was my intimate friend) let his name, I say, be had in
everlasting remembrance.
But, after all, is there not an infinitely greater debt of gratitude
and praise due from us, on this occasion, to Him that is higher than
the highest, even the King of kings and Lord of Lords, the blessed and
only Potentate? Is it not his arm, his strong and mighty arm, (what
instruments soever may have been made use of) that hath brought us
this salvation? And may I not therefore address you, in the exulting
language of the beginning of this psalm, from which we have taken our
text? “O give thanks unto the LORD, call upon his name, make known his
deeds among the people. Sing unto him; sing psalms unto him; talk ye
of all his wondrous works; glory ye in his holy name; remember his
marvellous work which he hath done.”
But shall we put off our good and gracious benefactor with mere
lip-service? GOD forbid. Your worthy Governor has honoured GOD in his
late excellent proclamation, and GOD will honour him. But shall our
thanks terminate with the day? No, in no wise. Our text reminds us of
a more noble sacrifice, and points out to us the great end the Almighty
JEHOVAH proposes, in bestowing such signal favours upon a people, “That
they should observe his statutes, and keep his laws.”
This is the return we are all taught to pray, that we may make to the
Most High GOD, the Father of mercies, in the daily office of our church,
“That our hearts may be unfeignedly thankful, and that we may shew
forth his praise, not only with our lips, but in our lives, by giving
up ourselves to his service, and by walking before him in holiness and
righteousness all our days.” O that these words were the real language
of all that use them! O that there were in us such a mind! How soon
would our enemies then flee before us? And GOD, even our own GOD, would
yet give us more abundant blessings!
And why should not we “observe GOD’s statutes, and keep his laws?” Dare
we say, that any of his commands are grievous? Is not CHRIST’s yoke, to
a renewed soul, as far as renewed, easy; and his burden comparatively
light? May I not appeal to the most refined reasoner, whether the
religion of JESUS CHRIST be not a social religion? Whether the
Moral Law, as explained by the LORD JESUS in the gospel, has not a
natural tendency to promote the present good and happiness of a whole
commonwealth, supposing they were obedient to them, as well as the
happiness of every individual? From whence come wars and fighting
amongst us? From what fountain do all those evils, which the present
and past ages have groaned under, flow, but from a neglect of the laws
and statutes of our great and all-wise law-giver JESUS of _Nazareth_?
Tell me, ye men of letters, whether _Lycurgus_ or _Solon_, _Pythagoras_
or _Plato_, _Aristotle_, _Seneca_, _Cicero_, or all the antient
lawgivers and heathen moralists; put them all together, ever published
a system of ethics, any way worthy to be compared with the glorious
system laid down in that much despised book, (to use Sir _Richard
Steel_’s expression) emphatically called, the Scriptures? Is not the
divine image and superscription written upon every precept of the
gospel? Do they not shine with a native intrinsic lustre? And, though
many things in them are above, yet, is there any thing contrary to
the strictest laws of right reason? Is not JESUS CHRIST, in scripture,
stiled the Word, the Logos, the Reason? And is not his service a
reasonable service? What if there be mysteries in his religion? Are
they not without all controversy great and glorious? Are they not
mysteries of godliness, and worthy of that GOD who reveals them? Nay,
is it not the greatest mystery, that men, who pretend to reason, and
call themselves philosophers, who search into the _arcana naturæ_,
and consequently find a mystery in every blade of grass, should yet
be so irrational as to decry all mysteries in religion? Where is the
scribe? where is the wise? where is the disputer against the christian
revelation? Does not every thing without and within us, conspire to
prove its divine original? And would not self-interest, if there was no
other motive, excite us to observe GOD’s statutes, and keep his laws?
Besides, considered as a protestant people, do we not lie under the
greatest obligations of any nation under heaven, to pay a chearful,
unanimous, universal, persevering obedience to the divine commands.
The wonderful and surprising manner of GOD’s bringing about a
reformation, in the reign of King _Henry the Eighth_; his carrying it
on in the blessed reign of King _Edward the Sixth_; his delivering us
out of the bloody hands of Queen _Mary_, and destroying the _Spanish_
invincible armada, under her immediate protestant successor Queen
_Elizabeth_; his discovery of the popish plot under King _James_; the
glorious revolution by King _William_; and, to come nearer to our own
times, his driving away four thousand five hundred _Spaniards_, from
a weak (though important) frontier colony, when they had, in a manner,
actually taken possession of it; his giving us _Louisbourg_, one of the
strongest fortresses of our enemies, contrary to all human probability,
but the other day, into our hands: these, I say, with the victory which
you have lately been commemorating, are such national mercies, not to
mention any more, as will render us utterly inexcusable, if they do not
produce a national reformation, and incite us all, with one heart, to
keep GOD’s statutes, and observe his laws.
Need I remind you further, in order to excite in you a greater
diligence to comply with the intent of the text, that though the storm,
in a great measure, is abated by his Royal Highness’s late success, yet
we dare not say, it is altogether blown over?
The clouds may again return after the rain; and the few surviving
rebels (which I pray GOD avert) may yet be suffered to make head
against us. We are still engaged in a bloody, and, in all probability,
a tedious war, with two of the most inveterate enemies to the interests
of _Great-Britain_. And, though I cannot help thinking, that their
present intentions are so iniquitous, their conduit so perfidious, and
their schemes so directly derogatory to the honour of the Most High
GOD, that he will certainly humble them in the end, yet, as all things
in this life happen alike to all, they may for a time, be dreadful
instruments of scourging us. If not, GOD has other arrows in his quiver
to smite us with, besides the _French_ King, his Catholick Majesty, or
an abjured Pretender. Not only the sword, but plague, pestilence, and
famine, are under the divine command. Who knows but he may say to them
all, “Pass through these lands?” A fatal murrain has lately swept away
abundance of cattle at home and abroad. A like epidemical disease may
have a commission to seize our persons as well as our beasts. Thus GOD
dealt with the _Egyptians_: who dare say, he will not deal so with us?
Has he not already given some symptoms of it? What great numbers upon
the continent have been lately taken off by the bloody-flux, small-pox,
and yellow-fever? Who can tell what further judgments are yet in store?
However, this is certain, the rod is yet hanging over us: and I believe
it will be granted on all sides, that if such various dispensations of
mercy and judgment do not teach the inhabitants of any land to learn
righteousness, they will only ripen them for a greater ruin. Give me
leave, therefore, to dismiss you at this time with that solemn awful
warning and exhortation, with which the venerable _Samuel_, on a public
occasion, took leave of the people of _Israel_: “Only fear the LORD,
and serve him in truth, with all your heart: for consider how great
things he hath done for you. But if ye shall still do wickedly, [I will
not say as the Prophet did, You shall be consumed; but] ye know not but
you may provoke the LORD Almighty to consume both you and your king.”
Which GOD of his infinite mercy prevent, for the sake of JESUS CHRIST:
to whom, with the Father, and the Holy Ghost, three persons, but one
GOD, be all honour and glory, now and for evermore. _Amen, Amen._