anger, that we perish not? And God fare their works, that they turned from their evit way; and God repented of the evil; that he bad faid, that he would do unto them; and be did it not:*

This memorable example will teach us never to defpond under the greatest dif treffes, but firmly to believe, that if we imitate the Ninevites in their Repentance, we fhall also resemble them in their Deliverance.

The wisdom of our Governors, the ardor of our Troops, the unanimity of the Nation, and the vigilance of our Fleets; almost promife infallible fuccefs against the prefent Difturbers of our Peace. But unless we can fecure the Governor of the Universe to be our Friend, human Wisdom, military Ardor, popular Unanimity, and all the vigilance, that the most skilful Commanders can exert upon the Seas, will fignify nothing: Eternal Wisdom can infatuate the counfels of the Wife, damp the courage of the Valiant, divide the hearts of the United, and baffle the caution of the most experienced Captains,

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Jonah III. 4, 1

tains: for the battle is not to the ftrong; and it is God alone, that giveth victory unte Kings, and can deliver bis fervants from the peril of the fword.

Since therefore God is the only giver of Victory; and fince the only way to fecure His friendship is to obferve the duty injoined in the text, to fear and ferve him in truth with all our heart, I will urge the motives, which the Prophet fuggefts to induce obedience, by bringing them down to our own Times and Nation;

I. First, confider how great things he hath done for you.

II. Next, that if ye fhall ftill do wickedly; ye fhall be confumed both ye and your King.

I. First remember particularly the chain of Mercies, which we of this Kingdom have received from the beginning of the Reformation to this day.

When Popery was in its greatest splendor, and Religion in its loweft decline; when the People prayed for they knew not what'; when they worshipped as God what their

fenfor

fenfes taught them was no god; when Papal Tyranny was at the highest pitch of power and infolence; when Kings and Em→ perors crouched before the infallible Chair, and were treated with infamous fcorn, and in some measure defervedly for being fo infamously mean; when Racks, Fires, Inquifitions were the pious method of converting the obftinate; when Palls, Difpenfations, Investitures, Appeals; Nunneries, Monafteries, Peter-pence, Chantries, and all the Engines of Spiritual Tyranny had drained the Kingdom of its wealth; when the Madness of Superftition had divefted men of their understandings; when Proceffions, Images, Pictures, and folemn Litanies, had in effect brought back the Idolatry of Old Rome, and filled the Sanctuary with extravagant Willworship instead of rational Devotion, with the fenfelefs Adoration of Saints, Angels, and Statues instead of the incommunicable Worship of the only True God; when all thefe, and many more impieties and tyranpies were exercised over the World, it pleased God to make one of our Kings the inftrument

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ftrument of throwing off the Papal Yoke, to make his Son improve upon the Fathers plan, and the younger of his Daughters gloriously to finish, what her Father and Brother had happily begun.

The relapse and miseries of Queen Marys Reign were fo many deep Shades to heighten the fplendor of her Succeffors; and the shortness of it a proof, that Gods anger endureth but a moment.

But that the Power of Spain fhould lodge in her bosom without inflaving her People; that the invincible Armada fhould become the Sport of Winds, and the Trophies of our Naval Prowefs; that the Life of her Sifter fhould be so often and providentially preferved against the Curfes, Plots, and Devices of the Holy See; that the next Kings Reign should be distinguished by the discovery of the most detestable Confpiracy, that was ever contrived upon earth; that his Grandfons mad scheme to recall the old Superstition, and introduce lawless Power should fo quickly and peaceably be baffled by the arrival of our Great Deliverer, KingWilliam,

that

that the Rebellion in the beginning of his late Majestys Reign was fo foon and happily extinguished; that all these Bleffings and many more should fucceffively befal our Nation; can be imputed to nothing else but to the indulgent care of Providence over us. And fince God has done fo many things

for us already, whereof we rejoice, let us be fully affured, that he will never leave us defenceless, but will conduct the work of his own hands, the glorious scheme of Refor mation, begun in this Kingdom, to its full period of perfection, by bringing at length all fects and denominations into one fold under one Shepherd, JESUS CHRIST the Righteous: unless our Obedience should so shamefully faulter, as to stop the course of those bleffings, which have hitherto continually flowed upon us.

If ye can confider all these benefits, private and public, religious and civil, heaped from time to time upon our Church and Nation, and can remain unmoved and impénitent, I will call you no longer reasonable Men, but infenfible Statues; I will no longer

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