LITMIR.BIZ

Скачать книгу

to give you a detail of our publick vices tho’ 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, tho’ 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, viz. that, as GOD has not dealt so bountifully with any people as with us, so no nation under heaven have dealt more ungratefully with him. We have been, like Capernaum, lifted up to heaven in priviledges, 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 ecclesiastic constitution, yet in regard to our morals, Isaiah’s description of the Jewish polity is too 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 practice. 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, Oh 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 tho’ Noah, Daniel and Job were living, they would only deliver their own souls; yet then, in the midst of judgment, the most High remembred 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 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 their 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 to become 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 (a presage it may be of this very thing) 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 publick (they are his own words) that “Providence had hitherto favoured him with wonderful success, led him in the way to victory, and to the capital of the ancient kingdom, tho’ 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 wish’d Rome had, but one neck, they might be cut off with one blow.

      The time, nature, and instrument of this victory deserve 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 nonage, 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, behav’d 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 once more delivered three kingdoms from the dread of popish cruelty and arbitrary power. What renders it still more remarkable is this—the day on which his highness gained this victory was the day after his birth-day, when he was entring on the twenty sixth 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 overcharged 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 bloody and deserved slaughter of some thousands of the rebels, with most of his brave soldiers, victorious from the field.

      Were we to 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 plow-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 priviledges, 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 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, Oh! 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 outstretched 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, tho’ 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 not we go and do likewise?

      And shall we forget, on such an occasion, to 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 Jerubbaal,

Скачать книгу