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SERMON CXXV.

(Preached April 25. 1749, on the Thanksgiving for the

Peace.)

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ON THE BLESSINGS OF PEACE. THEY ARE THE GIFT OF GOD.

PSALM XXIX. 10.

The Lord fhall give his people the blessing of peace.

WE are met this day to thank God for a mercy, that hath

long been the object of our earnest wishes and folemą prayers; that we have often had but small hope of obtaining, and yet now have poffeffed many months with an increafing prospect of its continuance on which account our joy is still more reasonable, though it muft, from the conftitution of our nature, be lefs warmly felt than it was at firft. Accordingly we have just been expreffing it in the divine presence. And inftruction from this place was not previously necessary to excite our gratitude for a benefit so visible and so important. But it may contribute not a little to fix in our breasts a more durable fenfe of what we have acknowledged; and, which is the end of all, directs us to fuch behaviour as will fecure and improve the happiness we enjoy.

I fhall, therefore, at present,

I. Set before you the blessing of peace.
II. Shew you that it is the gift of God.

II. Prefs you to remember, that only his people are entitled to it; and, confequently, to confider whether we are fuch; and to labour that we may in the higheft degree.

I. I fhall

I. I fhall fet before you the bleffing of peace.

Man appears, from the harmless make of his body, the converfable difpofition of his mind, the tenderness of his af fections, the fovereignty of his reflecting principle, the neceffity of affistance in his numerous wants, and the rules of life prescribed him by express revelation, to be formed for a focial inoffenfive creature. Now, the natural ftate of each being is the happy one. And the happinefs of peace is like that of health; it spreads through the whole of the civil, as that doth of the animal conftitution; and furnishes vigour and pleasure to every part, without being distinctly perceiv ed in one more than another; for which reason we are apt to overlook the felicity of both, till the lofs of them for a time renews our sense of their value; and even fuch experience ufually doth not long preserve it in our memory. Therefore, to discern sufficiently the advantages of peace, we must recollect the miseries of war.

To these we feldom attend farther than we immediately feel them. And the generality feel only the expence; which indeed is a fore evil, and hath been for many years past, and must be for many to come, a heavy burden to us. Perfons of low degree are sadly straitened by it in their enjoyment of the common comforts and neceffaries of life. Their fuperiors, it is true, need only undergo a retrenchment of their fuperfluities; which they might bear, if they would, without much uneafinefs, or any harm. But as too many of them are pleased to reckon their grandeur and luxury, their follies and their vices, the most inseparable privileges of their rank, they muft, by retaining these, be diftreffed equally with others, when the demands of the state are larger than ordinary. And as their ufual resource is the very bad one, of supplying a fund for extravagance and immorality, by refufing acts of piety, charity, and justice, they force multitudes round them to suffer with them and for them. Frequently, indeed, the load of taxes may not be the cause of this difhonourable behaviour; but even then it is a plaufible pretence and excuse for it. Nor doth the mischief ftop at particular perfons; but the public, exhausted by payments, and funk under debts, becomes incapable of exerting itself, even for its own prefervation, when future occafions require.

Yet,

Yet, melancholy as these things are, an article much more shocking, and which ought to be the first in our thoughts, is that of the various and continual toils and hardships that must be endured by fuch numbers of poor creatures, expofing themfelves in defence of others, through fo long a course of time: the lofs of fo many thousands of lives by sickness and in battle; the grief of fo many relations and friends; the miferies of fo many destitute families; part of these our fellow-fubjects; not a few of them poffibly very dear to one or other of us; a fecond part our allies; the reft called indeed enemies; but, it may be, fcarce any of them in fault for that enmity, how much foever their rulers are; and all of them, in truth, our brethren; of the same blood, and, in effentials, the fame faith, though taught them with a mixture of dangerous errors.

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Further ftill war not only weakens and afflicts a community in these respects, but interrupts the freedom of commerce, retards the propagation of knowledge, prevents useful improvements, takes of the public attention from domeftic concerns, furnishes occafion for abuses, obstructs the remedy of inconveniencies, till they grow inveterate and hard to cure; in fhort, disorders and unhinges the whole fyftem of civil affairs. Then befides, which is a vaftly more alarming confi. deration yet, all the time that hoftilities laft, who can tell how they may end? And had ours ended, as they eafily might, in our being abfolutely overcome, and obliged to accept the victors terms, what would they have been?

But war is also a state of no lefs wickedness than calamity and terror. Whenever it breaks out, one fide, at least, muft have acted grievously contrary to humanity and justice; contrary too, in all likelihood, to folemn treaties; and that from no better motives than little refentments, groundless or diftant fears, eagerness of gaining unneceffary advantages, reftlefs ambition, false glory, or wantonnefs of power. To fuch deteftable idols are whole armies and nations deliberately sacrificed; though every fuffering, thus caufed, is a heinous crime, and every death a murder. Nor will the fide which at first is more innocent, fail in the progress to be guilty of many fhocking tranfgreffions in common with the other. The whole body of a people are apt to grow uncharitable, unpity

ing, implacable; and the foldiery will plunge of course into cruelty, rapine, profaneness, lewdness, intemperance; not to add, that when the poor wretches have once changed the ordinary employments of life for this, they will be in great danger of never settling honestly and foberly to them again. Some of these things, to worldly or inconfiderate minds, may appear small matters: but every benevolent, or merely prudent perfon, will efteem them very great ones; and every pious heart will moft ferioufly mourn, that the worthy name, by which we are called, is blafphemed among the Gentiles*, through the fins, and peculiarly the enmities, of those who profess the gospel, instead of its producing that glory to God, peace on earth, and good will among ft men, whose angels proclaimed at our Saviour's birth +.

Still this dreadful evil, big with fo many more, becomes, by the obftinate iniquity of men, fometimes unavoidable. It must be the will of the common Father of All, that focieties, as well as fingle perfons, be reftrained from committing material injuries, elfe deftructive ones would be committed perpetually. Now, certainly amicable methods are to be tried in the first place: but often the only effectual method of reftraint is by arms; and then the minifter of God, the fupreme power, must not bear the fword in vain t. Often again, treaties made to fupport allies, if unjustly attacked, are probable means of preserving peace; and when that proves otherwise, the affiftances promised must be given, in order to reftore it. But above all, when a nation is directly attacked itself, defence is undeniably neceffary. And our cafe, in the late war, was compounded of all these. We have therefore the comfort, that our undertaking it was justifiable; and our manner of carrying it on, I truft, no way peculiarly blameable. But it could never be lawful to refuse any equitable, any tolerable conditions of agreement, for putting an end to fo much guilt and mifery. Whether those which we have accepted are de firable, is not a queftion to be difcuffed here. You have decided it for yourselves in the affirmative, by joining in this morning's fervice; and the people in general have shewn their joyful concurrence in the fame opinion. If fome wellmeaning

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* James ii. 7. Rom. ii. 24.

↑ Luke 1. 14.

Rom. xiii. 4.

meaning and able perfons have thought otherwife, diversities of judgments are always to be expected in fuch matters; and if the ill-wishers to our happy establishment are forry and angry, we have the more reafon to be glad. Let us therefore proceed to obferve,

II. That the bleffing of peace is God's gift:

This will need only a fhort proof; but requires a much more serious and practical confideration, than we commonly allow it. Every enjoyment is from his bounty; every fuf: fering his infliction. The whole series of causes and effects, all the connections of all things, were originally appointed, and are continually fuperintended by him. He brings forth, in each generation, such persons to act according to their own free choice, their various parts on the theatre of life, as he forefees will answer, fometimes by their great abilities and good difpofitions, fometimes by the contrary, his holy pur poses of judgment or of mercy. And the influence of this one arrangement on the reftoration of our present tranquillity, may have been, and probably hath been, unspeakably great. But be the tempers, qualifications, and defigns of men what they will, he can, unperceived by themselves, put thoughts into their minds, to incite, withhold, divert them to another object, just as he pleases. Then, befides, the entire frame of inanimate nature, as it was produced, is also actuated by him; and he could, by its original formation, or can now by the slightest change in the smallest part of it, occafion, obftruct, alter to any degree, the most important events. And laftly, the fame wife and gracious motives, which induced him to make the world, muft certainly induce him to be attentive to it. And the attention of an infinite mind muft comprehend the regulation of every thing, even the smallest; but affairs of fuch momentous confequence, as peace and war, cannot fail to occupy a distinguished place in the scheme of provi dence.

Thefe deductions of reafon, our condition of late years hath obliged me more than once to lay before you; but ftill they need to be inculcated. Paffages of fcripture too, confirming them, I have produced to you in great numbers; but it is very eafy, and would to God it were not neceffary, to add yet I form the light, and create darkness; I make peace,

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