<< that the word of God was nigh, in the heart," and in God's name commanded the children of Ifrael to obey and do it. In fhort, he refused the counsel of God, and God for his counfellor: for, in the next place, he betakes himself " to one that had a familiar fpirit for advice," faith the ftory: "He enquired not of the Lord; therefore he flew him, and turned "the kingdom unto David." There are too many people troubled with familiar fpirits; it were well if they were less familiar with them: had Saul trusted in God, he needed not to have been driven to that strait. He that was made king by God's appointment, and endued with a good fpirit, fo bafely to degenerate, as to run to a witch for counfel, could not but miscarry. To this darkness and extremity iniquity will bring men and truly, a wo follows all fuch perfons; anfwerable to that expreffion of God by the prophet; "Wo " unto them that take counfel, and not of me." "When Saul," faith the place, "was little in his own " eyes, God honoured him; he made him head and king of the tribes of Ifrael:" but when Saul grew proud, God deferted him, and for his disobedience deftroyed him. And what befel the family of Saul, in fome after-ages befel both kings and people, and worfe for their land was invaded, firft by the Egyptians, then by the Chaldeans and Babylonians: their temple was rifled, their treasure taken, and their kings, princes, nobles, artificers, and mighty men of valour, yea all fave the pooreft of the people, were killed, or carried away captive, by the king of Babylon. The reafon rendered is this: "Because the kings did that " which was evil in the fight of God, and stiffened "their necks, and hardened their hearts from turning "unto the Lord God of Ifrael;" and because the chief of the priests and of the people tranfgreffed very much after the abominations of the heathen. And when God fent his meffengers to reprove and warn them, and that out of his great compaffion, they

1 Sam. xv. 17.

* 2 Kings xxiv. 14. 2 Chron. xxxvi. 14.

wickedly

wickedly mocked his meffengers, defpifed his words, and mifufed his prophets, till his wrath came upon them, and overthrew them.

I will here end my inftances out of facred story: and let us now briefly confider what the hiftories of other places will tell us, that we may observe some proportion of agreement in the providence of God throughout the world.

The firft empire had Nimrod's ftrength, and the wisdom of the Chaldeans, to establish it; and whilst their prudence and fobriety lafted, they profpered. No fooner came voluptuoufness, than the empire decayed; and was at laft, by the base effeminacies of Sardanapalus, in whom that race ended, transferred to another family. It was the policy of an Affyrian king, in order to fubdue the ftrength of Babylon, then under good difcipline, not to invade it with force, but to debauch it. Wherefore he fent in players, muficians, cooks, harlots, &c. and by thofe means introducing corruption of manners, there was little more to do, than to take it. Nebuchadnezzar, by his virtue and industry, seen in the fiege of Tyre, and in many enterprizes, recovered and enlarged the empire; and it feems his difcipline (thofe times confidered) was fo excellent, that it was praised in fcripture. But when he grew proud and foolish, forgetting that providence that had fhewn itself fo kind to him, he became a beaft, and grazed among beafts; till God, whom he had forgotten, had restored him the heart of a man and his throne together.

He, dying, left Evil-Merodach heir to his crown, not his conduct, nor the heart to confider what God had done by him: in his time pride and luxury increased, but came not to its full pitch, till the reign of Belshazzar, who did not only, as Nebuchadnezzar, live, but die a beaft. In him we have the exact example of a diffolute and miferable prince: he thought to fence himself against heaven and earth: diffolved in pleasures, he worshipped no other God: his ftory may make us well conclude, that God and man defert thofe

that

that defert themselves, and neglect the means of their own prefervation. The city was taken before he knew it, and the fword almoft in his bowels, before he believed it; his fenfuality had wrapt him in fuch a defperate fecurity. But he fell not by the hand of one like himself, for God, who had determined the end, prepared the means. Cyrus and his Perfians were the men: the people were poor, inhabiting a barren country; but hardy, and of fober manners. Cyrus God had endued with excellent natural qualities, cultivated (as story tells us) by the care of four of the moft temperate, juft, and wife perfons of thofe times. This was he, whom God honoured with the name of his "fhepherd," and who was the executioner of his vengeance upon the Affyrians. While he reigned, all was well; but after he and his virtuous companions deceased, their children fell into the vices of the Affyrians; and though they reigned from the Indus to the Hellefpont, they foon became the conqueft of the Greeks.

Never was there a greater inftance given of the weaknefs of pomp and luxury, than in the refiftance made at Thermopolæ, where three hundred virtuous Spartans encountered the vast army of Xerxes, confifting of no less than feventeen hundred thousand men. In fhort, the defeats of Salamine and Platea, the expeditions of Xenophon with Cyrus the younger, almost into Babylon, and the wars of Agefilaus into Afia, made it evident, that Greece wanted only union, and an head, to make herself mistress of that vaft empire.

men.

At last comes Alexander of Macedon, with the best disciplined people that was then known: the difpute was fhort, where fteel was againft gold, fobriety against luxury, and men against men that were turned woThus the Perfians, prepared by their own vices, God delivered into the hands of the Greeks, who as much excelled them in their virtue, as they were short of their dominion and wealth. But this lafted not long; for Alexander, who died young, furvived his virtue and reputation, by falling into thofe vices of the

nations

nations God had given him power to trample under foot; infomuch that he, who was before generous, became barbarous and tyrannical. Egypt, Afia, and Macedon, held up their heads a while; but not refifting the torrent of lewdnefs that came upon them, they fuffered themselves to be overwhelmed with misery and confufion.

Nor has this calamity been peculiar to monarchies; for several republicks have fallen by the fame mischief. That of Lacedæmon, or Sparta, fo fevere in her conftitution, and fo remarkable for the virtue of her people, and that for many ages, at laft growing flack in the execution of her laws, and fuffering corruption infenfibly to creep into her manners, fhe became no more confiderable, but weak and contemptible.

The fame may be faid of Athens, the great school of learning; and of all the republicks of Greece, most famous for her virtue and philofophy, when that word was understood not of vain difputing, but of pious living: fhe no fooner fell into luxury, but confufion and revolutions made her as inconfiderable, as she had been great.

Rome, as she was the greatest commonwealth, fo the greatest example of the Gentiles in virtue and vice, in happiness and in mifery: her virtue and greatness are commemorated by Austin the father, and the latter made the effect of the former. God,' faith he, gave the Romans the government of the world, as a re<ward for their virtue.' Their manners were fo good, and their policy fo plain and juft, that nothing could ftand before them. And truly, they feemed to have been employed by God to punish the impious, and to inftruct the barbarous nations: and fo very jealous was fhe of the education of her youth, that he would not fuffer them to converfe with the luxurious Greeks. But careleffness, with length of time, overcoming the remarkable fobriety of her manners, who before feemed invincible, fhe falls into equal, if not greater miferies, than those that went before her; though the had not only warning enough from their example, but

from

from Hannibal's army, and her great enemy: for one winter's quarter of Hannibal and his army in the luxurious city of Capua, proved a greater overthrow to them, than all the Roman confuls and armies had given them. They that had been victors in fo many battles, turned flaves at laft to dancers, buffoons, cooks, and harlots; fo as from that time they never did any thing fuitable to the reputation gained by their former actions; but fell without much difficulty into the Roman hands. Nay, not long before, Rome herself encountered one of the greatest dangers that ever had befallen her, by the corruption of her own people, in the fame place, by the like means: and though this defection was recovered by thofe that remained entire in their manners, yet after the overthrow of Antiochus, Mithridates, Tigranes, fo that the riches and vices of Afia came with a full stream upon them, the very heart of the city became infected; and the lewd Afiaticks had this revenge in their own fall, that they ruined, by their vices, thofe they were no ways able to refift by their force; like the ftory of the dying centaur. Thus pride, avarice, and luxury, having prepared Rome for deftruction, it foon followed. Virtue now grew intolerable in Rome, where vice dared not for ages to fhew its face. The worthiest men were cut off, by profcriptions, battles or murders, as if the refolved ipfam virtutem exfcindere: fhe destroyed her own citizens, and fent for ftrangers to protect her, which ruined her. Which proves, that the kingdom or state, that, under God, doth not fub fift by its own ftrength, prudence and virtue, cannot ftand: for the Goths, Hunns, and others, defpised to ferve thofe, whom they excelled in power and virtue; and instead of guarding, took their dominion from them. And truly it might rather be called a journey, than a military expedition, to go and pillage Rome; fo weak had her vices made her. Thus fhe, that was feared by all nations, became the prey of all nations about her. So ended that once potent and virtuous commonwealth.

The