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of them! Can we juftly promise ourselves, that because we have fucceeded hitherto, in spite of all our fins and provocations, we fhall fucceed always? or reft fecure, that the mercies we have received, great as they are, were meant only as earnefts and pledges of ftill greater, which are to follow ?

Thus indeed we feem to think, and thus the prefent happy profpect of our affairs, humanly fpeaking, may feem to promife. And yet the fudden and furprifing turns, we ourselves have felt or feen, fhould not, methinks, fuffer us too forwardly to admit fuch thoughts, which may indeed (if God fhould be tempted from thence to rebuke our vanity) contribute to blast the faireft hopes, but can be of no ufe towards rendering them effectual. Too great a confidence in fuc cafs is the likelieft way to prevent it; because it hinders us from exerting our strength to the utmoft, and making the beft ufe of the advantages which we enjoy. It renders us indulgent to our lufts and vices, careless of approving and recommending ourselves to God by religious duties, and, by that means, fecuring the continuance of his goodness to us. It is like the conceit about abfolute election to eternal life; which fome enthufiafts entertaining, have been thereby made more remifs in the practice of those virtues which alone could fecure their title to heaven.

Let us then lay afide thefe "vain and finful imaginations," left the confequence of them fhould be, in our cafe, what it was in king David's, "God did hide his face, and he was "troubled."

VOL. II.

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III. This

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III. This is the Third point, to which I propofed to fpeak. But 'tis an unwelcome task, a fubject which I care not much to infift on; and which, after all, I truft in God, we may not be concerned in: Because it is (I am fure) still in our power to fecure to ourselves an intereft in the divine mercies that are yet to come, and to lengthen the courie of our present profperity; if we do but in good earnest betake ourselves to the use of those means which are prefcribed in the text, Humiliation and prayer. "Then cried I unto "Thee, O Lord, and gat me to my God right "humbly."

IV. These are the duties, which we profefs, on this folemn day, to perform. If with a true Christian lowlinefs of heart, and a devout fervency of foul we perform them, we shall find, that they will turn to a greater account to us, than all the warlike preparations in which we trust, than the alliances of our potent friends, or even the fears of our disheartened enemies; that "they will fight for us better than a mighty "fhield, and ftrong fpear." If we do indeed humble ourselves before God this day, not merely by the outward folemnities of a faft, but by afflicting our fouls (as well as bodies) for our fins, by emptying our hearts of all thofe vain and fwelling thoughts, which profperity hath infused into them; by acknowledging ourselves unworthy of the leaft of God's mercies, at the fame time that we enjoy the greateft; by afcribing to Him, all the glory of what is past, and by renouncing all

reliance

reliance on the arm of flesh for the future; by deploring the mighty guilt of our tranfgreffions, and renewing fincere vows of obedience: If, I fay, we do in this manner fanctify the prefent faft, if we "feek unto God thus betimes, and "make our fupplication to the Almighty; furely "he will now awake for us, and make the habi"tation of our righteousness profperous ;" and, "though our beginning hath not been fmall, yet

our latter end fhall greatly increase," Job viii. 6. 7. No fight is fo pleafing to God, no fervice is fo acceptable to him, as the public humiliations of a thankful people, in the midst of their fucceffes and victories. Mighty is the efficacy of fuch folemn interceffions, even to avert judgments that are already denounced (as appears from the cafe of the Ninevites) how much more available then must they be, to fecure the continuance of bleffings, and to confirm and establish the profperity which God hath already given us?

Lactantius and St. Auftin are not afraid to confirm by their fuffrage the observation made by the heathen writers, that the flourishing eftate of the Roman empire was owing to the religious difpofition of that people; by which they afcribed all their fucceffes to the heavenly powers they worshipped, and ftill advanced in their regard for religion, as they advanced in greatness. Diis Te minorem quod geris, imperas; faid a Roman to his country-men, at that point of time, when their affairs were moft profperous: It was because they carried themfelves with a due fub

• Polybius, Cicero,

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miffion

miffion to the Gods, that mankind was made fübject to them. Hath the revelation of the gofpel of Ghrift inade any change in the methods of God's dealing with kingdoms and nations? If not-and the reverence, which these heathens expreffed towards their falfe deities, was fo highly rewarded, may not We Chriftians, when we thus offer up our devotions to the true God, expect alfo a blefling upon them? We certainly may; if they come not from the lips, but the heart; from an heart filled with a grateful fenfe of mercies received, and firmly refolved to do every thing in its power toward deferving new ones: From an heart, so affected as good David's was (not when he faid, "In my profperity I fhall "never be moved;" but) when he had learnt to fecure and increafe his profperity, by an humble behaviour towards God and a dutiful reliance on his providence; and did, under thefe convictions, compofe the following hymn, to be ufed (as it thould feem) in the public fervice of the church, on fome folemn day of humiliation. "Lord" (faith he)" my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty, "neither do I exercife my felf in great matters, or "in things too high for me,' Pfal: cxxxi. 1. As mighty things as thou haft done for me, I have not been exalted, either in heart, or look, on that account; or have bufied myself in fearching out the fecret reafons of thy diftributing profpe rity and adverfity in fuch a manner as beft pleafeth thee. "Surely I have behaved and quieted "myfelf, as a child that is weaned of his mother;" I have imitated the humble, modeft, and tractable temper of the infant-ftate; "Yea, my foul is

66 even

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" even as a weaned child," it is as refigned to thy guidance, as entirely dependent on thy care and goodness. Upon which it very naturally follows

Let Ifrael" (that is, every Iraelite indeed, who can thus truly say of himself) "truft in the "Lord, from henceforth, and for ever!" for there can be no furer way to fuccefs, than by dif claiming all confidence in ourselves, and referring the events of things to God with an implicit affiance.

Come on then, let as many of us, as have not been tempted by our profperity to entertain vain thoughts, or are now refolved to difmifs them, bow our felves before God, both publicly and privately, imploring the continuance of his bleffings on that righteous caufe wherein we are engaged, and on thofe, who by their counfels, courage, or conduct uphold and ftrengthen it: efpecially on our most gracious QUEEN, whofe exemplary piety and virtues are its greatest ornament and advantage, its chief fupport and stay: who, as the hath the fucceffes of David, fo hath received them with the fame religious humility he did; and hath, by that means, we truft, laid a foundation for more; which (if our vices hinder not) he in due time will beftow, who regardeth the lowliness of his bandmaiden, but fcattereth the proud in the imagination of the hearts: Who putteth down the migh ty from his feat; but hath exalted (and will exalt) the humble and meek.

To him Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, he afcribed
all dominion and praife, now, and for ever.
more. Amen!
A SPIT

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