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What fellowship, says he, hath righteousness with unrighteousness? Or what communion hath light with darkness*? It must then be granted, that as The righteous Lord loveth righteousness, and his countenance beholds the upright †; so his Face must be set against them that do evil, that sooner or later he may cut off the remembrance of them from the earth. Wicked men have reason therefore to be afraid of his judgments; and they have especial reason to fear them, who, like the inhabitants of Great Britain, have been favoured with the clearest knowledge of his will, have received the most eminent deliverances from him, and have for a long series of years been preserved in peace and prosperity; while at the same time, that they have called themselves his people, they have acted in a visible contrariety to their profession, and thereby brought proportionable dishonour upon his name. This is a case greatly to be feared in every condition, and it is especially worthy of our consideration in our present circumstances; because

2. It is most evident, that the success of military affairs does entirely depend upon the divine protection and favour.

This is a well known maxim of the word of God; and considering the natural pride of our hearts, it was fit that it should be deeply inculcated. It is therefore repeated again and again ; and it is observable, that it comes most frequently from the pen of David, who was himself so courageous a warrior, and so illustrious a conqueror. No king, says he, is saved by the multitude of a host; a mighty man is not delivered by much strength : A horse is a vain thing for safety; neither shall he deliver any by his great strength: Behold, the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him, to deliver their soul from death §. And we shall have occasion hereafter, to mention many other passages equivalent to those.

It would indeed be thus, if the success of battle was always proportionable to the number, strength, and skill of those respectively concerned in it; for all the strength, and all the skill of creatures is derived from God, and is supported by him. But we find in experience, as well as in scripture, that events often arise, in which it evidently appears, That the battle is not to the strong, nor the race to the swift ||; and circumstances happen, in which, with some allowance for the figurative expression, One chases a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight¶. Much of the success of military actions depends upon the

* 2 Cor. vi. 14. Eccles. ix. 11.

+ Psal. xi. 7.

Deut. xxxii. 30.

Psal. xxxiv. 16. § Psal. xxxiii. 16—19.

weather, which almost the whole world acknowledges to be apparently at the divine disposal, and to be quite beyond any human alteration or controul. Wind and rain, cold and heat, have been the destruction of thousands, who imagined themselves most secure of victory and success, even in land engagements. Much likewise depends upon a variety of little accidents; and especially, with respect to the discernment of those that command, and the alacrity of those who engage. Now God at pleasure takes away the spirit of princes, and dejects The men of might, so that they are not able to find their hands*. He sometimes diffuses among mighty armies a spirit of discord, so that confederate forces desert, or destroy one another+; or perhaps sends a sudden panic upon them ‡, and then, be their forces ever so numerous, the entrance of fear is the beginning of a defeat, in which numbers, instead of helping, only crowd, and bear down, and trample on each other. It is evident to all acquainted with history, that, by such incidents as these, small numbers have been rendered victorious, even almost beyond their expectation, and have stood astonished at their own success.

This is a remark peculiarly applicable to naval preparations. Their prosperity most evidently depends on the most uncertain elements, the winds and the waves; and he that Gathers the winds in his fist §, can with infinite ease pen up the most gallant fleets in their harbours, and waft over to defenceless ports, in the very neighbourhood of them, invading enemies in transports by no means a match for the fine navies, on which the sovereign of the sea has laid his embargo. Yea, at his command The ships of Tarshish shall be dashed in pieces with an east wind, and their bulk and strength only serve to give each other the more violent shocks, and to spread the wider ruin. This is a thought especially worthy our attention, who have in so many instances, within the memory of man, owed the preservation of our domestic peace, and probably it may be added, even that of our religion and liberty, to the interposition of the wind in our favour. A circumstance, which our enemies themselves have recorded with surprise, though we are, alas, too insensible of it T.

*Psal. lxxvi. 5, 12. †2 Chron. xx. 22, 23. 2 Kings vii. 6,7. § Prov. xxx. 4. Psal. xlviii. 7.

Not only the story of the Spanish invasion, and that of the arrival of the prince of Orange, our great deliverer, in 1688, are memorable instances of this; but also the invasions afterwards attempted, either by king James the second, or the Pretender and his agents; of which I cannot recollect any one that has not been defeated chiefly by winds, and those such as we ourselves could have wished. And as I think that Father Orleans, in his History of the English Revolutions, meu

We see then how incontestibly it appears, that the prosperity of our arms entirely depends upon the divine favour: and indeed the truth of this is so evident, that dissolute as the generality of mankind are, there are few of them entirely unimpressed with it. It is certain, that many of those vices, which tend to provoke God, do at the same time render men's circumstances desperate, their spirits mean, and their constitutions weak. Riot and debauchery unbrace the nerves; and in proportion to the degree in which they are indulged, render the glutton, the drunkard, and the whore-monger, incapable of sustaining those hardships, which would be comparatively easy to those, who had been long trained up under the discipline of abstinence, sobriety, and industry. But, besides all this, guilt of every kind naturally makes men cowards; whereas conscious integrity and uprightness is a kind of impregnable armour, which secures the heart from fear, even in the midst of danger. This Solomon well knew, and therefore says, The wicked flee when no man pursues; but the righteous are bold as a lion *. And indeed that man, who apprehends himself under the guardianship and defence of divine providence, may well be courageous'; and when he can say, The Lord is my light, and my salvation, he may justly add, Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life, of whom shall I be afraid? Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident+: for he has all the reason in the world to be assured, that God will either shield him from danger, which in the most perilous action he can easily do; or if he suffer him to fall by it, will open him a passage to eternal glory, by the wounds he may receive in a righteous cause. Whereas the man who is Condemned by his own heart, cannot easily flatter himself so far, as inwardly to imagine, that he is not condemned by that God who is greater than his heart, and knoweth all things. Nor can he always forget how entirely he is in the hand of that tremendous Being, whom his disobedience has made his enemy: and it is no wonder if Death appear terrible, when he has so much reason to fear, that hell will follow it §; for though it is an easy thing to jest with its distant terrors, it is not so easy deliberately to brave them, when they seem to approach. You may therefore ob

tions some of the former instances, with particular regard to this circumstance; so I know the author of the late Duke of Berwick's Life, remarks it as to some of the latter, in some passages which struck me so agreeably in reading, that I am sorry I have not now an opportunity, either of inserting, or referring to them.

* Prov. xxviii. 1.

+Psal. xxvii. 1, 3.

+1 John iii. 20.

§ Rev. vi. 8.

serve, that, in order to lay conscience asleep, politic men have often contrived to blow up a wicked soldiery with an apprehension, that what they might want in the regularity and virtue of their behaviour, they had in the goodness of their cause, or in the orthodoxy of their belief; that a persuasion of the piety of their cause, might at least be a balance to the impiety and licentiousness of their characters: yea, they have, it may be, consecrated their cruelties as an atonement for their debauchery. What artifices have been used to this purpose, and by whom, it is by no means my present business to enquire; but I look upon it as a sort of testimony, borne often by the worst of men to the importance of some religious hopes in military affairs; as it does, on the other side, appear from what was before said, that these hopes can only be reasonably entertained by those, who are disposed to a thorough reformation of their lives, or, in the language of the text, to keep themselves from every wicked thing, when their host goes forth against the enemy.

But in order to render these general resections more useful, by bringing them to a point, permit me, in the second place,

II. To hint at some of those evils, which we should, in our present circumstances, be particularly careful to guard against.

And here I must in the very first place, mention that, in which all the other particulars, which might occur on this occasion, are in effect contained, as in their fatal cause; and observe,

1. That "a profane contempt of that divine revelation, with which God has favoured us," is one great evil, that should be carefully avoided.

As I cannot, so I hope I need not, be large in shewing, how admirably the whole tenor of the word of God, and especially the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, which we all profess to believe, is calculated to promote a general reformation in mankind; and how certainly it will promote it, in proportion to the degree in which it is cordially received. It indeed most powerfully tends, not only to regulate the life, but to awaken and impress the conscience; not only to control those evil actions, which, though detrimental in some measure to society, may not be cognizable by human laws, but also to suppress, and even eradicate, those irregular affections and passions, from which such actions proceed. We can therefore wish nothing better to our country, than this gospel, this Glorious gospel of

VOL. III.

E

the blessed God, may be universally considered, embraced, and obeyed and I am persuaded, nothing would have an happier aspect upon our public affairs, than that we should all labour to our utmost to promote its establishment, and its influence over the minds of men.

We have the more reason to be concerned about it, as perhaps there is no christian nation under heaven, in which bolder and more mischievous assaults have been made upon revealed religion, than among us: and though it has so friendly an aspect on the comfort of individuals, and the happiness of society, the licentiousness of some, and the pride of others, has engaged them to unite against it, as against a common enemy, and to treat it with a contempt, equal to that veneration it might justly have demanded. This is indeed the natural consequence of that liberty which we enjoy, not only of thinking for ourselves, which none can prevent, but of freely professing our own sentiments: a liberty so honourable to human nature and to truth, and on many accounts (as I have elsewhere shewn +,) so profitable, that I think no wise man could wish it were restrained. Yet the more freely we assert it, the more careful should we be by all rational and christian methods to prevent its abuse, and to guard against those bad consequences, which, good as the thing itself is, are almost inseparable from it.

Let all who believe the gospel, take heed how they trifle with it; and let all who have any scruples concerning it, make their enquiries into its evidences with all possible diligence, humility, and impartiality; which if they do, they will undoubtedly end in a more established belief. And let us all, according to our abilities, exert ourselves for its defence; not only by pleading its cause by arguments, so far as we have an opportunity in our respective places to do it; but also by bearing our testimony to its importance, as well as its truth; and above all, by labouring to the utmost to make our lives a continued and prevailing apology for it, which they will be, if they are steadily governed by its holy dictates.

To excite us to the greater care on this head, let it be remembered, that nothing is more highly displeasing to God, than the contempt of that revelation which he has sent. They that despised Moses's law, found it so to their cost; for when They mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and misused his prophets, the wrath of the Lord rose against his people, till there was no remedy; and he brought an invading enemy

1 Tim. i. 11.

+Sermon on Persecution.

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