manifold wisdom of Divine Providence, in the various turns and vicissitudes of human affairs; the interchangeable successions of judgments and mercies, whether towards particular men, or whole bodies of men, churches, and kingdoms; the revolutions of states, and fortune of empires, public calamities and public blessings returning in their appointed seasons: a subject useful at all times, and particularly suitable to this day's solemnity. For though (God be thanked) the blessings which we now commemorate may turn our thoughts chiefly to the brighter side of Divine Providence; yet both the advice of the text, and the reason of the thing, call upon us to consider the dark side also. We shall have no full sense of the mercies we enjoy, till we look back to the calamities which we once lay under: neither shall we be in a right disposition to make the best use of what we have, unless we look forward to the great uncertainty and instability of all things here below; how suddenly adversity may overtake us, and a cloud overshadow us, amidst our rejoicings. We have had our days of prosperity and our days of adversity, as all other nations also have had theirs: "God hath set the "one over against the other," in the ordinary course of his Providence, to chastise, try, exercise, or improve mankind. His goodness is chiefly seen in one, his justice in the other; his wisdom and his power in both. In discoursing further,

I. I shall first observe, in the general, that we ought to look up to God as the supreme Author both of calamities and blessings.

II. I shall apply the general doctrine to the particular case of our late troubles, and our deliverance from them in the happy Restoration.

III. I shall point out the proper use and improvement to be made of all.

I. I am, first, to observe, in the general, that we ought always to look up to God, as the supreme Author both of calamities and blessings. His Providence steers and governs all things both in heaven and earth. Every seemingly uncertain chance or wandering casualty is directed to its proper end by his unerring wisdom. Not a hair of any man's head perishes, nor so much as a sparrow falls, but by his guidance or permission. Second causes are entirely in the hands of their first mover: even the voluntary counsels and contrivances of moral agents are all conducted by his rule and governance; and are so curiously wrought

in and interwoven with his eternal purposes, as to make up, in the whole, one entire, uniform, and beautiful contexture. He hath the hearts and wills of all men under his sovereign command, winding and turning them by secret and irresistible influences, to bring about his own good and great designs. So that all events, whether calamitous or prosperous, are in the last result to be ascribed to his directive or permissive Providence : which I may shew a little more particularly, first of calamities, and next of blessings.

1. As to calamities, it is said, "Shall there be evil in a city, "and the Lord hath not done ita?" And in another place; "I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and "create evil: I the Lord do all these things b:" that is, either by direction or permission. Accordingly, David scrupled not to say, that the Lord had bidden Shimei to curse him c. And Absalom's wickedness in rebelling against his royal father, and going in unto his father's concubines, were a judgment of God upon David, consequent upon God's avenging sentence pronounced against him in the matter of Uriah. For "thus saith the Lord, “Behold, I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house, " and I will take thy wives before thine eyes, and give them unto thy neighbour, and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of "this sun. For thou didst it secretly: but I will do this thing "before all Israel, and before the sun "." When God sees fit to execute vengeance, he unties the hands of wicked men, and lets them loose to commit all uncleanness and iniquity with greediness. He withdraws his protecting arm, for a time, from those whom he has once determined to chastise. And in such a case it is all one to him, whether the fury of wild beasts or that of wilder men be let in upon them to execute his righteous judgments. This is no reflection upon his holiness, or unspotted purity; as if he either stood in need of men's wickedness, or were consenting unto it: but it is a marvellous instance of Divine wisdom in conducting all things to some excellent purpose, that the very worst of all shall not return useless or empty; but the very things which of all others are the most displeasing and hateful to him, shall yet be turned to a good use, and made to serve the ends of his glory; while the wicked actors either design nothing of it, or design the quite contrary. To them remains b Isa. xlv. 7. c 2 Sam. xvi. 10, 11. e 2 Sam. xii. 11, 12.

a Amos iii. 6.

d 2 Sam. xvi. 22.

shame and confusion of face, for the evil of their doings: to him glory and praise, for bringing good out of evil. Thus the serpent was suffered to beguile Eve, and Eve to deceive Adam, which brought on a curse upon them and theirs: but out of this mischief was made to spring up an everlasting covenant of mercy; and the curse was thereby converted into a blessing. Joseph was meanly and maliciously sold into Egypt by his inhuman brethren they did wickedly therein, but God was wise and gracious in permitting it, as fully appeared by what followed after. God suffered Satan to afflict Job in a very grievous measure: but then he made it subservient to Job's happiness and to his own glory. In like manner he suffered Judas to betray, and the Jews to crucify our blessed Saviour: they acted wickedly, exceeding wickedly; but God was very just and kind in permitting them so to do, to bring about the great and glorious purposes of man's redemption.

Such is the wisdom and goodness of Almighty God in conducting all events to his own glory; and making both wicked men and devils undesigning instruments to execute his all-wise and secret counsels.

The ends which God hath to serve, in any great calamities, are many and various, and often dark and mysterious; that it may be hard to know on what special errand they come, and whether they be designed more for trial and exercise, than for vengeance or punishment. Only in national visitations we may reasonably judge, for the most part, that one particular end and design of them is correction and chastisement for national sins. This was manifest all along in the Jewish Church and nation. The calamities they suffered by sword, pestilence, famine, or captivity, were all so many judgments upon them, bearing a visible reference and proportion to the nature, number, and aggravations of their sins and impieties. And the reason given by Almighty God, in the case of the Amorites, whom he would not finally cut off before their iniquities were full, seems to carry in it the force of an argument for the truth of the observation in general; and may give light into the methods of God's vindictive dealings with whole nations or communities. From the consideration of calamities let us turn our eyes to a more pleasing prospect, namely, to that of blessings.

2. The very name of blessings intimates their author, and f Gen. xv. 16.

speaks their Divine original. The common sentiments of mankind, upon which the custom of speech is formed, seem to agree in this; that prosperous events are the blessings of Providence and the gifts of God. And they ought indeed to be esteemed of as such, being more peculiarly and eminently his works. They are what he particularly delights, and, as it were, triumphs in; and more abundantly displays his power in effecting. They fall in with his primary and original design in creating us; which was no other than to set forth his own goodness, and to promote our welfare and happiness. And though calamities are, in their season, necessary to this very end; yet it is that necessity alone which makes them eligible: for God "does not afflict willingly, "nor grieve the children of men."

Besides that afflictions and troubles are, for the most part, owing rather to God's permissive, than directing Providence; and are often little more than the natural fruits and consequence of men's sins. As when animosities run high, and ambition and avarice, and other vile affections reign; when public spiritedness decays, and religion declines, and charity waxes cold; the natural effect and result hereof can be nothing else but the desolation, the misery, the ruins of a land: so that men may justly blame themselves for the calamities of their own making. But blessings and comforts are more directly and plainly the work of God. No device or art of man could ever be able to procure even the ordinary comforts of life, without God's special assistance: and as to extraordinary turns and revolutions of State, such as we this day commemorate, his interposal in such cases is often clear and manifest. They are brought about by surprising incidents, and by some marvellous train of providences; to shew that the whole contriving, conducting, and completing them are entirely his. I proceed then,

II. To apply the general doctrine to the particular case of our late troubles, and our deliverance from them in the happy Restoration.

We must first take a brief, summary survey of those calamities, under which this Church and nation had for many years groaned. Whoever will be at the pains to peruse the black history of those rebellious times, will there find such amazing circumstances of distraction, horror, and confusion, as are scarce to be paralleled in any Christian annals: such insolencies, oppressions, rapines, murders, treasons, so openly carried on,

without remorse or shame, among Christians, reformed Christians, neighbours of the same kingdom, and brethren of the same household; and all this with such a glozing show of piety and devotion, with hands and eyes lift up to heaven, seeking the Lord, as the phrase then was: such a scene, I believe, as was never before seen or heard of; and when it was, might have made a generous mind almost disdain the relation he bears to the species, or even to blush for the reproach of being reckoned to the kind. Misguided zealots took upon them to set rules to their superiors; to trample on all laws, sacred or civil; to involve three kingdoms in a dreadful war, wherein were lost above two hundred thousand lives; the bravest blood of the country spilled, the worthiest families stripped, plundered, and undone. Under pretence of espousing liberty and property, those wretched patriots pulled down all the ancient fences made for the security of both; shewing at length what kind of liberty it was that they affected: liberty to imprison, banish, plunder, and destroy all that had either loyalty to provoke their resentments, or revenues to supply their avarice: liberty first to deface, spoil, and crush the monarch, and next to accuse and condemn, and in the end to murder the man: liberty to tread under foot all authorities, to set up and pull down parliaments, or to model them at pleasure; to abolish a whole House of Peers, and almost to extinguish the nobility, raising up the very dregs of the populace to usurp their places in a word, liberty to turn a kingdom upside down, and to leave it languishing, and well nigh expiring in its miserable distractions and most deplorable confusions. Such was the sad and mournful estate of this unhappy island in its civil capacity. But its religious one was still worse, and of more melancholy consideration; inasmuch as the concernments of it are higher, and reach further than the other. Our excellent Church was soon vanquished and trodden down, after the King, its nursing father, had lost his head in defence of it. When monarchy once failed, episcopacy could not long survive: that venerable, ancient, apostolical order fell a sacrifice to misguided zeal and blind popular fury. Then began conceited ignorance to triumph wide and far over learning and sound knowledge; novelty over antiquity; confusion over order; schism, heresy, and blasphemy, over unity, orthodoxy, and sincere piety. This was refining upon the Church of England! These our reformers!

It were endless to proceed in the melancholy story of the