I will make a wailing like the dragons, and examples of human frailty, yet to these make a mourning as the owls, for her wound happy times we owe the bright examples of go Zion shall be plowed as a field," chap. i. 3, 4. down with honour to the latest posterity. 8, 9, and iii. 12. Let us then acknowledge, my brethren, that, We have been treating of our text as it re- although we have insulted the rectitude of gards you, my brethren, we will therefore leave God, we are willing now to do homage to it the prophet and his countrymen, in order to let us confess, God has given his people no just give you full liberty to exhibit your complaints, ground of complaint; in all his conduct he has and to say now, in the presence of heaven and displayed the power of a God, the fidelity of a earth, what ills God has inflicted on you. "O husband, the tenderness of a parent; and we my people, what have I done unto thee?" Ah, have nothing to reply to him, when he asks, Lord! how many things hast thou done unto "O my people, what have I done unto thee us! Draw near, ye mourning ways of Zion, wherein have I wearied thee? testify against ye desolate gates of Jerusalem, ye sighing me." priests, ye afflicted virgins, ye deserts peopled with captives, ye disciples of Jesus Christ, wandering over the face of the whole earth, children torn from your parents, prisons filled with confessors, galleys freighted with martyrs, blood of our countrymen shed like water, carcasses, once the venerable habitation of witnesses for religion, now thrown out to savage beasts and birds of prey, ruins of our churches, dust, ashes, and remains of houses dedicated to our God, fires, racks, gibbets, punishments till now unknown, draw nigh hither, and give evidence against the Lord. My brethren, if we consider God as a judge, what a number of reasons may be assigned to prove the equity of all the evils that he has brought upon us? The abuse of his favours, the contempt of his word, the slighting of all the warnings given us by his ministers, the pride and worldly-mindedness, the lukewarmness and indifference, and many other odious vices, which preceded our miseries, are evidences too convincing that we deserved all; and they ought to make our complaints give place to the sorrowful, but sincere confession, which a prophet puts in the mouth of the church, The Lord is righteous, for I have rebelled against him," Lam. i. 18. As God has answered the complaints of his people, let us proceed to inquire, how his people will answer the complaints of their God. Let us see what we ourselves can reply. He has heard us, can we refuse to hear him? Let cause between us proceed in this astonishing There was no The history of the Jews is so well known, that every one of us is acquainted with their irregularities. They corrupted both natural and revealed religion. They had " as many gods as cities," Jer. ii. 28. They chose rather to sacrifice their children to Moloch, than their sheep and oxen to Jehovah. opinion so absurd, no worship so puerile, no idolatry so gross, as not to be admitted among them. Having shaken off the ties of religion, the bridles of corrupt passions, they threw the reins on the necks of the most ungovernable dispositions, and rushed furiously into all the worst vices of the nations around them. With this conduct the prophets were always re proaching them, and particularly Ezekiel in these words, in which he describes this wretched people under an image the most odious that can be imagined. O how weak is thine But as we said that in this text God is to be heart, saith the Lord God, seeing thou doest considered as a father, we affirm all these chas- all these things! O wife committing adultery, tisements, even the most rigorous of them, are taking strangers instead of thy husband! They perfectly consistent with this character. It give gifts to all, whores: but thou givest thy was his love that engaged him to employ such gifts to all thy lovers, and hirest them that they severe means for your benefit. You know, my may come unto thee on every side for the brethren, and you know but too well, that the whoredom. The contrary is in thee from other ease with which the enjoyment of the presence women in thy whoredoms, whereas none folin our eyes. I appeal to experience. Recol- thou givest a reward, and no reward is given lect the time so dear to you, when the gospel was preached to you in your own country, and when God, with a bounty truly astonishing, granted you both spiritual and temporal prosperity. Did you, I appeal to your consciences, These words law to "bring unto thee," Ezek. xvi. 30, &c. did you value these blessings according to their greater abomination must it be to apply the real worth? Were you never disgusted with offerings of the Lord to the support of pros the manna that fell every morning around your habitations? Did you never say with the Israel titutes! Their crimes were aggravated, too, by the ites, "There is nothing at all, besides this innumerable blessings which God bestowed on manna, before our eyes?" Num. xi. 6. It was them. The prophet reminds them of these in cessary for you to learn the importance of sal- of servants, remember what Balak consulted, God, to take his candlestick away; it was ne- O my people, I redeemed thee out of the house necessary, in order to reanimate your zeal for the words that follow the text vation, by the difficulty of obtaining it; and to kindle your love to your spiritual husband by Remember, What favour What numberless and what Balaam answered." his absencc. These events excited abundance engagements to fear God! He made a coreof piety among you; and, though the misfor- nant with them, he divided the sea to let them tunes of the times have produced too many pass over, he gave them bread from heaven to 매 the r the fes eat, he cleft the rock to give them drink, he brought them into the country of which Moses had said, “The land whither ye go is a land which the Lord thy God careth for; the eyes of the Lord thy God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year, even unto the end of the year," Deut. xii. 12. Moreover, all their temporal blessings were types and pledges of spiritual benefits, either then bestowed, or promised in future. After so many favours on God's part, after so many crimes on the part of the people, had not the Lord reason to complain? Was ever controversy more just than this? My brethren, you have certainly been often shocked at reading the history of this people; you have blamed their idolatry; you have detested their ingratitude; you have condemned the carelessness of their pastors, and all the vices of the people. But what would you say if we could prove that the excesses of priests and people are greater under the gospel than under the law? The Lord's controversy with you affirms this, and this we must now examine. of into the present state of magnificence: a people who, placed in a corner of the world, and occupying only a few acres, extend their influence over the whole world; a people opposing at the same time two great kings; a people in whose favour the sea suspended its usual flux on the day that was to decide the fate of these provinces for ever; a people whose forts were all occupied by the enemy, and who, when they had nothing to trust to but the unavailing fidelity of a few citizens, saw the enemy "that came out against them one way, flee before them seven ways," Deut. xxviii. 7. A people inhabiting a country formed, (if I may speak so) against the laws of nature, but which the God of nature supports as it were by miracle; a people taxing, governing, and making laws for themselves; a people walking in the light of the gospel shining in all its glory, and enjoying the reformation in its utmost purity. This is only an imperfect sketch of the blessings which God in distinguishing mercy confers on you. Do you distinguish yourselves by your gratitude? Is there more piety among you than among other nations? Is there a greater attention to the word of God, and more deference to his laws? Are there more good examples in parents, and are their children better educated than others? Is there more zeal for family religion; is the truth more highly esteemed, and is more done for the propagation of the gospel? Do the sufferings of pious persons for religion excite more compassion? I pronounce nothing. I decido nothing. I leave you to judge of your own conduct. But which of us ministers, which of us has courage to enter into this detail? And which you Christian people would have humility enough to hear us out without murmuring, trembling with indignation, and exclaiming against your reprover, "Away with him, away with him!" Surprising! When we now pleaded the unjust cause of man against the Creator, the patient Creator satisfied every inquiry; the earth did not open under our feet to swallow us up, no fire from heaven came down to destroy us; but at every article of the controversy received a full answer. Now that we ought to proceed to hear the complaints of the Creator against us, I already hear every one murmuring, and refusing to pay as much regard to the just complaints of God, as God condescended to pay to those which had no foundation in reason and equity. Well, we will speak to you in your own way; we will treat you as sick people are treated when their physicians are obliged to disguise remedies, and conceal operations necessary to their recovery, we will decide nothing; but we will leave each of you to judge of his own conduct. We will only produce a few of the articles of God's controversy with you, and propose a few maxims for you to examine; but if there remain the least degree of rectitude in you, we conjure you to apply these maxims in earnest to yourselves. First. When God distinguishes a people by signal favours, the people ought to distinguish themselves by gratitude to him. The equity of this maxim is clear to every one of us, and nobody will dispute it. I ask then were any people in the world ever favoured of heaven as the people of these provinces have been? A people (permit me to go back to your origin,) a people formed amidst grievous oppressions and barbarous impositions; a people subject to tyrants more cruel than the Pharaohs of Egypt; a people not ashamed to call themselves beggars, and to exhibit poverty on their standards; a people who, in the space of six months, gave up six thousand of themselves to racks and gibbets; a people risen from this low condition VOL. I.-49 Perhaps some of my hearers, whom the correcting hand of God has long pursued, and whom he seems to reserve as monuments of his lasting displeasure, perhaps they may think this maxim concerning the blessings of Providence does not regard them. But shall we be so ungrateful as not to acknowledge the benefits bestowed on us? And shall we be so insensible as not to mourn over our own ingratitude? My brethren, let us look back a little. Let us for a moment turn our eyes to the land of our nativity, from which we are banished; let us remember the time, when, to use the language of the psalmist, we went in "a multitude to the house of God with the voice of joy and praise," Ps. xli. 4; nor let us forget the many advantages, which we enjoyed till the day of our exile. How happy a climate! What an agreeable society! What opportunities for commerce! What a rapid progress in arts and sciences! Was our gratitude proportioned to the liberal gifts of God? Alas, the exile we lament, the dispersion that separates us from our nearest relations, the lassitude we feel, the tears we shed, are not these sad, but sufficient proofs of our insensibility and ingratitude? This is the first article of God's controversy against us, and this is the first maxim of selfexamination. The second regards the chastisements of God. When men are under the hand of an angry God, they are called to mourning and contrition. Pleasures, innocent in other circumstances, are guilty in this case. You perceive at once the truth of this maxim. God by his prophet says to you, "Hear ye the rod, and who hath appointed it," Micah vi. 9. One of his most eyes of flesh, the sight strikes every beholder with surprise and awe. Here are princes, magistrates, generals, men excelling in learning and science of every kind. We can hardly find in all Europe so many venerable personages assembled in so small a place. Moreover, here is all the exterior of piety, assiduity, attention, eagerness, a great concourse of people, and every thing that looks like zeal and fervour. Yet the end, the great end of the ministration of the divine word, is it even known among us? When each of you come into this holy place, do you think what you are going to do? When you enter the house of God, do you keep your feet, according to the language of a prophet? When you approach this desk, does your heart accompany him who prays Does your fervour rise up with his petitions, and does your soul warmly unite itself with his requests to supplicate the throne of grace, and to avert the anger of Almighty God? When you hear a sermon, have you the docility requisite to such as receive instruction? Does your memory retain the doctrines taught? Does your heart apply to itself the searching truths sometimes delivered? When you return home do you recol lect what you have been hearing? Do you ever converse about it afterward? Do you require any account of your children and servants of their profiting? In a word, what good comes of all the exhortations, expostulations, and arguments used among you? I pronounce nothing. I decide nothing. I leave you once more to judge of your own conduct. cutting reproofs to his people was this, "In that day did the Lord God of hosts call to weeping, and to mourning, and to baldness, and to girding with sackcloth; and behold, joy and gladness, slaying oxen and killing sheep, eating flesh and drinking wine; let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we shall die. And it was revealed in mine ears by the Lord of hosts, Surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you till ye die," Isa. xxii. 12, &c. Thus, in like manner, another prophet complained to his God, "O Lord, thou hast stricken them, but they have not grieved; thou hast consumed them, but they have refused to receive instruction; they have made their faces harder than a rock, they have refused to return," Jer. v. 3. Now, my brethren, though the blessings of Providence surround us, yet it is plain we are at present under the rod of correction. I lay aside all the afflictions just now mentioned; will not remind you of gibbets, and racks, and tortures, subjects so proper to banish from our minds the senseless joy that fills them, were we either "grieved for the affliction of Joseph, or pleased to remember the dust of Zion." I will speak only of the cause of our assembling now, of this cruel and tragical war. Is not the destroying angel gone abroad? Does not the "sword of the Lord, drunk with blood," turn the whole universe into one vast grave? Are your fortunes, your liberties, or your religion safe? Should your fleets and armies be always victorious in future, would not your husbands, and relations, and friends be in imminent danger? Would our victories cost us no tears? Would not our laurels be bloody? Alas! the Our fourth maxim regards slander. Slander tears of some mother having lost her son, the is a vice impure in its source, dangerous in its ef sighs of some wife having lost her husband, thefects, general in its influence; irreparable in its complaints of some friend who had lost a friend, consequences; a vice that strikes at once three would not these interrupt our songs of tri- mortal blows; it wounds him who commits it, him umph, and mix mournful sounds among our against whom it is committed, and him who sees it shouts of joy? committed. It is tolerated in society, only because every one has an invincible inclination to commit it. Examine this place on this article. Are not your slanders famous even in distant climes? Do not strangers and travellers observe your propensity to this vice? Are not many of you cruelly attentive to the conduct of your neighbours, and always asking, Where is he? Whence does he come? What is he about? What are his opinions? Have you no pleasure in discovering people's imperfections? Does not malice publish some vices, which charity ought to conceal? Are no tales invented? none enlarged? no calumnies added? Are not the characters of the most respectable persons attacked, of heads of families, magistrates and ministers? Is not one unreasonably taxed with heresy, another with fraud, another with criminal intrigues, and so on? This is the fourth article of God's controversy. I pronounce nothing. I decide nothing. I leave you to judge of your own actions. We are, then, under the correcting hand of God. Yet what impressions do these frightful objects make on us? What effects are produced in our souls by objects so proper to fill them with fear and trembling? Have we broke up any party of pleasure? Have we kept away from any public amusement? Have we laid aside any festivals and public shows? Is nothing to be seen among us but fasting and weeping, sackcloth and ashes? Would not any stranger who should see us, say every thing succeeded according to our wishes; that there was no danger, no war, no blood-shedding, no probability of another campaign, that should cover the earth with the limbs of the dead? This is the second article of God's controversy with us. This is the second ground of examination. I pronounce nothing. I decide nothing. I leave you to judge of your own conduct. The third maxim regards the end of preaching and the ministry. To attend public worship is not to obtain the end of the ministry. Not to become wise by attending, is to increase our mise ries by aggravating our sins. On this principle we affirm, that every time our places of worship are opened, every time you attend public service, every time you hear a sermon, you are required to derive some real benefit, answerable to the end proposed. Is it so? When we survey this assembly, and look on it with the Fifthly. If the dangers that threaten us, and the blows that Providence strikes, ought to affect us all, they ought to affect those most of all who are most exposed to them. To explain ourselves. There is not one of us so secure, there is no credit so firm, no house so established, no fortune so safe, as not to be affected by this war. Consequently, there is not any one person who ought not, by fervent prayer, and genuine piety, D YOU TOU 203 act 1 to endeavour to engage Heaven to prosper our armies. It is, however, clear beyond a doubt, that our generals, officers, and soldiers, have a particular and personal concern in the approaching campaign. Men who, besides all the infirmities and dangers to which human nature is subject, and to which they are exposed in common with all mankind, are going to expose themselves to the dangers of sieges and battles, and all Bother concomitants of war; they who are always contending with death; they who march every day through fires and flames; they who have always the sound of warlike instruments in their ears, crying with a thundering voice, "Remember ye are mortal;" people of this profession, ought not they to be more affected with these objects than we who see them only at a distance? And, consequently, ought not they to enter with greater sincerity into the religious dispositions which such objects are apt to excite? This is the maxim, the fifth article of God's controversy with us. See, examine. Is piety respected among your troops? Does the ark of the Lord always go at the head of your army? Does the pillar of a cloud direct your steps? Does benevolence animate you towards one another, partners as you are in common danger? Do the mouths that are ready to utter the last sigh, open only to bless the Creator, and to commit to him a soul hovering on the lips, and ready to depart? Are offences against Jesus Christ punished as severely as offences against officers in the army? "Do ye provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are ye stronger than he?" 1 Cor. x. 22. Would you force a victory in spite of him? Would you triumph without God, or would you have him succeed your attempts, when you carry impiety on your foreheads, irreligion in your hearts, and blasphemy in your mouths? I pronounce nothing. I decide nothing. I leave each of you to draw such inferences from this maxim as naturally belong to it. Our sixth maxim regards gaming. If gaming be innocent in any circumstances, they are uncommon and rare. It is easier to renounce this pleasure than to enjoy it without excess. Examine yourselves on this article. Are there none of us to whom gaming is become necessary? None who relish no other pleasure? Are there no fathers and mothers who train up their families in it, and embolden them by their examples? Is there no opulent man who imagines he has a right to spend his fortune in gaming? Is there no necessitous person who hazards the support, yea, the daily bread of his family in this practice? I determine nothing. I pronounce nothing.. I leave you to judge of your own actions. But why not pronounce? Why not decide? Wherefore respect false delicacy? "Why not declare the whole counsel of God?" Acts xx. 37. Why strive to please men?" Gal. i. 10. Ah, my brethren! were I to hold my peace, the walls, and the pillars, and the arches of this building, the hills and the mountains, would rise up in judgment against you. "Hear, ye mountains, hear ye hills, hear the Lord's controversy. The Lord hath a controversy with his people, and he will plead with Israel." Yea, the Lord has a controversy with you. His reproofs would cleave your hearts asunder, and dissolve you in floods of tears, were you capable of reflections and emotions. He complains of all the vices we have mentioned. He complains that you are insensible to the most terrible threatenings of his mouth, and the heaviest strokes of his hand. He complains that you bite and devour one another like wild and savage beasts. He complains that impiety, irreligion, and intemperance, reign over those souls which are formed for the honour of having God for their king. He complains that you forget the excellence of your nature, and the dignity of your origin, and that you occupy your immortal souls with amusements unworthy of the attention of creatures having the least degree of intelligence. He complains that exhortations, expostulations, and entreaties, the most forcible and affecting, are almost always without success. He complains of some abominable crimes which are committed in the face of the sun, and of others that are concealed under the darkness of the night, the horrors of which I dare not even mention in this place dedicated to the service of God. He complains that you force him, as it were, to lay aside his inclination to bless you, and oblige him to chastise you with severity. Behold! the storm gathers, the thunder mutters and approaches, the lightning is ready to flash in our faces, unless our fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes, avert these judg ments which threaten us, or, shall I rather say, which are already falling upon us? Such is the controversy of God with you; these are his complaints. It is your part to reply. Justify yourselves, plead, speak, answer. 0 my people, what have I done unto thee?" What have you to say in your own behalf? How can you justify your ingratitude, your insensibility, your luxury, your calumnies, your dissipations, your lukewarmness, your worldlymindedness, your pride, your unworthy communions, your forgotten fasts, your false contracts, your broken resolutions, the hardening of your hearts against threatenings, and promises, and personal chastisements, some public calamities already inflicted on the church, and others ready to overwhelm it? Have we any thing to reply? Again I say, justify yourselves, plead, speak, answer. Ah, my brethren, my brethren! am I deceiving myself; I think I see your hearts in your countenances, and read in your faces the reply you are going to make. Methinks I see your hearts penetrated with genuine grief, your faces covered with holy confusion, and your eyes flowing with tears of godly sorrow. I think I hear the language of your consciences, all "broken and contrite, and trembling at the word of the Lord," Ps. li. 19; I think I hear each of you say, though I were righteous, yet would I not answer; but I would make supplication to my judge," Isa. lxvi. 2; Job ix. 15. This was the disposition of the people after they had heard Micah. God said, "O my people, what have I done unto thee? wherein have I wearied thee? testify against me." And the people, afflicted on account of their sins, afraid of the judgments of God, all wounded and weighed down with a sense of guilt, confused and astonished at their condition, replied, "Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the high God." your country. May the God of armies return you victorious as rapidly as our wishes rise! May This was the answer of the Jews, and this he reunite the many hearts, and reassemble is the answer we expect of you. Let each of the many families which this campaign is going you say, "Wherewith shall I come before the to separate! May he prevent the shedding of Lord, and bow myself before the high God?" human blood; and while he makes you conHow shall I turn away those torrents of divine querors, may he spare the people subdued by judgments which threaten to overwhelm the you! May he return you to wear the crowns Christian world? We, the ministers of Christ, and laurels which our hands will be eagerly we answer in the name of God, prevent them preparing for you! May he, after he shall by sighs and tears of genuine repentance, pre- have granted you all a long and happy life, vent them by cool, constant, and effectual useful and glorious to the state and to your resolutions, by effusions of love, and by increas-families, open the gates of eternal happiness to ing zeal for universal obedience. you, and fix you for ever in the temple of peace! To him ie honour and glory hence forth and for ever. Amen. SERMON XLVII This ought to be the work of this day; it is the design of the fast, and the aim of this sermon; for it is not sufficient, my brethren, to trace the controversy of God with you, it must be finished, the parties must be reconciled, and each of us must yield obedience to the voice THE HARMONY OF RELIGION AND that says to every one of us, "he may make peace with me, he shall make peace with me," Isa. xxvii. 5. Magistrates, princes, noblemen, ministers, people, parents, children, will you not all of you embrace this invitation? Do you not solemnly protest, in the presence of heaven and earth, and before the angels that wait in this assembly, that you prefer this peace before all the riches in the world? Do you not all resolve, with the utmost sincerity and good faith, never more wilfully to break the commandments of God? O Lord, thou knowest all things, thou knowest the hearts of all mankind, thy searching eyes survey the most secret purposes of the souls of all this assembly! If each of us reply thus to God, let us cherish the pleasure that is inspired by the return of his favour. Christians, what came you out today to see? what came you out to hear? God pleading before you, God justifying himself, God convicting you: yet, after all, God pardoning you. What may we not expect from a God so patient and kind? Lo! I see on a happy future day the tears of Zion wiped away, the mourning of Jerusalem ended, our captives freed from bondage, our galley-slaves from chains. I see on a happy future day victory following our march, our generals crowned with laurels, and every campaign distinguished by some new triumph. Methinks I behold, on some future day, our prayers exchanged for praise, our fasts for solemn festivals, our mourning for joy and triumph, and all the faithful, assembled to-day to implore the aid of the God of armies, again convoked to bless the God of victory, and making this place echo with repeated shouts, "The right hand of the Lord is exalted. The right hand of the Lord hath done valiantly. The sword of the Lord and Gideon," Ps. cxviii. 16; Judg. vii. 20. I see on some happy future day our enemies confounded; one post running to meet another, one messenger to meet another, to show the king of Babylon that his army is routed. I see commerce flourishing among this people,and liberty for ever established in these provinces. Go, then, generous warriors, go verify these pleasing omens, go, sacredly prodigal of spilling your blood in defence of liberty, religion, and CIVIL POLITY. PROVERBS xiv. 34 Righteousness exalteth a nation. To propose maxims of civil polity in a religious assembly, to propose maxims of religion in a political assembly, are two things, which seem alike senseless and imprudent. The Christian is so often distinguished from the statesman, that it would seem, they were opposite characters. We have been lately taught to believe, that Jesus Christ, by giving us an idea of a society more noble than any we can form upon earth, has forbidden us to prevent the miseries of this state, and to endeavour to procure the glory of it. It has been said, that kingdoms and states cannot be elevated without violating the laws of equity, and infringing the rights of the church. How general soever this odious notion may have been, hardly any one has appeared openly to avow it till of late. The impudence of pleading for it was reserved for our age, for a Christian admitted into your provinces, cherished in your bosom, and, O shame of our churches! appearing among protestant refugees, as the devil formerly presented himself before the Lord, among the angels of God.* We propose to-day, my brethren, to endeavour to unravel the sophisms of this author, to show you the agreement of religion with civil polity, and to establish this proposition, that as there is nothing in religion to counteract the design of a wise system of civil polity, so there is nothing in a wise system of civil government to counteract the design of the Christian religion. It was the wisest of all kings who taught us this lesson. He speaks of the exaltation of a nation, and this is the end of civil polity. He speaks of righteousness, and this is the design of religion, or rather this is religion itself. He affirms that the latter is the foundation of the former, and this is the agreement of religion with civil government. It is "righteousness," says he, It is "righteousness" that "exalteth a nation." This proposition of Solomon needs both explication and proof; and this discourse is intended to furnish both. |