How lately we have been in like distress, you all know. How great a death we must have suffered, had our enemies prevailed; how total a destruction of every thing valuable to us on earth, that can be destroyed by man; I endeavoured to shew you at the very beginning of their attempt: and the whole body of the nation, God be thanked, have expressed the strongest detestation of it. May neither the horror of the impending ruin, nor the frightful probability there was of its overwhelming us, ever be forgot. Recollect, I intreat you, what your successive apprehensions have been for many months past: on the early and entire, and easy defeat of our forces by the rebels; on the defenceless condition in which the island then was; on their passing afterwards, unhurt, by two armies posted to intercept them, and approaching towards this capital; on the prospect of powerful assistance to them from abroad; on the credible, though happily false, intelligence of our being actually invaded; on the safe retreat of our domestic enemies into the north, to join, as it was affirmed and believed, with foreign succours there; on our second disappointment in battle, a fatal one it might have proved; on the continual dangers, to which that heroic prince was exposed, whose presence and conduct, and courage and activity, were so essentially necessary for animating our dispirited troops; on the re-assembling and successes of our foes, after a seeming despondency and dispersion ; on the largeness of their numbers, the advantages of their situation; and lastly, on the strong report of what was but too possible, a complete victory obtained by them, when indeed one had been obtained over them, of which we were ignorant. Had we not often, during this period, the sentence of death within ourselves? Were we not troubled on every side; without were fightings, within were fears*: men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which were coming on the earth†? and had we been asked, at some junctures especially, as the prophet was, in language akin to that of the text, Can these dry bones live? can this exhausted nation rise up again, and shake off the pressures, from every quarter, under which it labours? what other reply, at best, could we have made, than his? O Lord God, thou knowest. For surely the wisest of men did not know: nor could the bravest answer for the event, after it had been so frequently contrary to what we thought the most rational expectations. Of this only there was certainty, that we had the loudest call to adopt the Psalmist's prayer: O God, thou hast cast us off, and scattered us; thou hast also been displeased: O turn thee unto us again. Thou hast moved the land, and divided it: heal the breaches thereof, for it shaketh §. And praised be his name, that we can now add the words which follow those: Thou hast given a token for such as fear thee, that they may triumph because of thy truth. And we have accordingly triumphed in this comfortable earnest of prosperity, returning to us after so long an absence, with a joy as cordial and universal, as perhaps this nation ever expressed. May both our friends and our enemies know it, and draw the natural conclusions from it, to the encouragement of the former, the dismay of the latter. But then, if we triumph only for the safety of our persons and properties, and not because of God's truth, and * 2 Cor. vii. 5. + Luke xxi. 26. Psalm lx. 1, 2. Ezek. xxxvii. 3. pure religion; if we rejoice, and overlook the Author of our joy, the Giver of all victory; we shall fall inexcusably short of our duty, and the example set us by the Apostle: who subjoins immediately to his account of the danger, which he had escaped, II. A thankful mention of his Defender from it: God, who had delivered, and did still deliver him. It is evidently both as easy for the Supreme Being, and as worthy of him, to govern the universe, as to create it. Indeed the only purpose, for which divine Wisdom could create it, must be to conduct every part of it to a right end: and the smallest parts are no more beneath his attention, than the greatest; for he is infinitely above all. What reason thus teaches, holy Scripture confirms with important additions: informing us, that a future day is appointed for the full and final display of his justice and goodness towards the children of men; but that in the mean time his providence is active, so far as the constitution of things established by him permits, and not the least occurrence comes to pass, without the superintending care of our Father, which is in heaven *. We are often indeed ignorant, by what means he acts; for he is able to influence, unperceived, not only the course of inanimate nature, but the minds of rational agents, and to produce the greatest events from the slightest occasions. We are often equally ignorant of his views in acting: for we know but in part: whereas all things are naked and open to the eyes of him with whom we have to do t. The imperfection of our discernment therefore must be no hindrance to our faith: but our plain duty is to reverence implicitly those proceedings of his, the man+ Heb. iv. 13. * Matt. x. 29. + 1 Cor. xiii. 9. 12. ner and grounds of which are hid from us: as well as to pay him more particular acknowledgments on account of such as we understand. For in many cases the hand of God is clearly visible but no where more than in the correction, and yet preservation, of states professing his holy and eternal truth*: as indeed there cannot be on earth fitter objects of his righteous providence. Thus in all ages he hath watched over his church. Thus more especially he hath treated this church and land, ever since the Reformation: visiting our offences with the rod, and our sin with scourges; nevertheless his loving kindness hath he not utterly taken from us, nor suffered his truth to fail†. Many a time have they fought against me from my youth up, may Israel now say; yea, many a time have they afflicted me from my youth up, but they have not prevailed against me. The ploughers have ploughed upon my back, and made long furrows: but the righteous Lord hath hewn the snares of the ungodly in pieces ‡. And surely in the troubles, which we have undergone of late, a pious and thoughtful mind may trace evident footsteps of divine interposition. Why else, on the one hand, did our enemies increase, prevail, and escape, so surprisingly, for so long together? Why, on the other, did they so unaccountably miss the fairest and most palpable opportunities of undoing us effectually; neither pursuing at home the advantages they had gained, nor procuring the succours, which their friends abroad in all prudence ought to have sent them? And why, lastly, have they allowed us to obtain so decisive a victory, in a few moments, at the expence of so little blood lost on our side, (would * Office for November 5. + Psalm lxxxix. 32, 33. Psalm cxxix. 1—4. God their own, poor deluded wretches, could have been spared), when both from the encouragement of their preceding successes, and the necessity of exerting themselves to the utmost in this crisis of their fate, a very obstinate engagement was to have been expected? Whence have these things happened thus, but that God ruleth in the kingdom of men*? The Lord maketh the devices of the people to be of none effect, and casteth out the counsels of princes. But the counsel of the Lord shall endure for ever, and the thoughts of his heart from generation to generation. Blessed are the people, whose God is the Lord Jehovah; and blessed are the folk, that he hath chosen to be his inheritance †. Let us learn therefore, and acknowledge, for it is a very bad sign if we are unwilling, that both our dangers and our deliverances are from above. This will in no degree lessen the guilt of our enemies: for they were prompted by their own wickedness unjustly to attempt, what Heaven for our wickedness might justly have permitted. Nor can it ever be a plea for yielding tamely to their enterprises, that God makes use of them to serve his purposes. We know not the extent of those purposes; which he will certainly execute, as far as they extend: and are therefore to do our evident duty. If he suffers our adversaries to attack our most valuable rights, he both empowers and commands us to defend them: and they, who consider themselves as his instruments for this end, will act with unspeakably more faithfulness and zeal, than such as are induced by worldly motives alone; which frequently other worldly motives, and sometimes very trifling ones, may outweigh: whereas there is no counterbalance to a principle of conscience. Nor doth it in the least detract from the merit of our + Psalm xxxiii. 10, 11, 12. * Dan. v. 21. |
