raised up at certain appointed times, and furnished with every requifite qualification to "perform all his pleasure," and fulfil his views. "I am the Lord that maketh all

things; that stretcheth forth the heavens "alone; that spreadeth abroad the earth by "myfelf; that fruftrateth the tokens of the

lyars, and maketh diviners mad; that turn

eth wife men backward, and maketh their "knowledge foolish; that confirmeth the "word of his fervant, and performeth the "counsel of his meffengers. I form the light and create darkness; I make peace and

create evil: I THE LORD DO ALL THESE "THINGS." Thus we fee, that what is confidered as the common viciffitude of human affairs, peace and war, peftilence and famine, political changes and national revolutions, the paffions of the wicked, the machinations of the crafty, the virtues of the good, the errors of the weak, the prudence of the wife, the shining qualities of the great; every thing, in short, that the world calls accident, chance and fortune, are all, in fact, under the control of an invifible and over-ruling hand; which, without any violation of the laws of

Ifaiah xliv. 28. † Isaiah xliv. 24, 25, 26, and xlv. 7.

nature

nature, or the freedom of human actions, renders them ubervient to the gracious purposes of divine wisdom in the government of the world.

In the infance above adduced of the four great monarchies, we fee this fublime truth exemplified in the moft ftriking manner. They form, as it were, one vast map of providential administration, delineated on fo large a fcale, and marked with fuch legible characters, that they cannot well efcape our notice. But although this is very properly hung up for the observation of mankind in general, yet there are other examples of a national Providence which to us may be more interefting, as coming more home to ourfelves. We of this kingdom have been moft remarkably favoured with the vifible protection of Heaven; and there are in our own history so many plain and unequivocal marks of a divine interference, that if we do not acknowledge it, we are either the blindeft or the most ungrateful people on earth. Let me more particularly call your attention to the following very fingular circumftances, in some of the greatest events that dignify the annals of this country.

Our

Our feparation from the church of Rome was begun by the paffions of a prince, who meant nothing less than that reformation of Religion which was the confequence of it. The total difperfion and overthrow of what was profanely called the invincible Armada, was effected almost entirely by winds and tempefts. That dreadful popish conspiracy, which feemed guarded by impenetrable darkness and filence against all poffibility of detection, was at laft cafually discovered by a letter equally indifcreet and obfcure. At a time when there appeared no hope of ever recovering our ancient form of government, it fuddenly rofe from the ruins in which the tragedy of this day had involved it; under the auspices of a man who had helped to destroy it, and who seemed almost to the last moment undecided whether he should reftore or destroy it again. And to crown all, our deliverance in a fubfequent reign from the attempts of a gloomy tyrant to enslave both body and foul, was brought about by a concurrence of the most furprizing incidents co-operating, at that very critical moment on which the whole depended, with the nobleft efforts of true patriotism.

Let

Let now the hardieft fceptic confider only thefe few remarkable facts felected from a multitude of others fcarce less extraordinary, and then let him deny, if he can, the evident traces they bear ftamped upon them of SOME

SUPERIOR POWER.

It may feem, indeed, as if the very times to which the present folemnity carries back our thoughts, were a contradiction to the doctrine here advanced, were a ftrong and melancholy proof that God's providential care was then at leaft withdrawn, and "the light of his coun

tenance turned away" from this ifland. The murder of a virtuous though mifguided prince, and the total fubverfion of the conftitution, may be thought utterly inconfiftent with the notion of a divine fuperintendence. But it is not surely to be expected, that throughout the whole duration of a great empire, any more than throughout the whole life of an individual, there is to be one uninterrupted course of profperity and fuccefs. Admonitions and checks, corrections and punishments, may be, and undoubtedly are, in both cafes fometimes ufeful, perhaps effentially neceffary; and the care and even kindness of Providence may be

no

no less visible in these falutary feverities, than in the distribution of its most valuable bleffings.

Both private and public afflictions have a natural tendency to awaken, to alarm, to inAtruct, to humanize, to meliorate the heart of man; and they may be ultimately attended with other very important and beneficial confequences. This was eminently the cafe in that turbulent period we are now commemorating. The convulfions into which the nation was then thrown, feem to have been the efforts of a vigorous though at that time difordered conftitution; which fhaking off in thofe violent agitations fome of its most malignant humours, acquired in the end a degree of health and foundnefs unknown to it before. These however might, by a skilful management, have been much foener established. The lenient remedies of LAW AND PARLIAMENTARY AUTHORITY, which were at first applied, had made fo great a progress in subduing the maladies of the ftate, that there was all the encouragement in the world to perfevere in that regular and prudent courfe. But most unfortunately for the nation, it was too haftily relinquished; and in an evil hour re

courfe