the Artifices of domeftick Enemies, compelled their Rulers to make ufe of all Means for reducing them to their Allegiance, which perhaps, after all, was brought about rather by Time than by Policy. When Commotions and Difturbances are of an extraordinary and unusual Nature, the Proceedings of the Government must be fo too, The Remedy must be fuited to the Evil, and I know no Juncture more difficult to a Minister of State, than fuch as requires uncommon Methods to be made use of; when at the fame time no others can be made use of, than what are prefcribed by the known Laws of our Constitution. Several Measures may be abfolutely neceffary in fuch a Juncture, which may be represented as hard and fevere, and would not be proper in a time of publick Peace and Tranquillity. In this cafe Virgil's Excufe, which he put in the Mouth of a fictitious Sovereign upon a Complaint of this Nature, hath the utmoft force of Reafon and Juftice on its Side.

Res dura et regni Novitas me talia cogunt.

• The Difficulties I meet with in the Beginning of my Reign make fuch a Proceeding neceffary.

In the next place: As this Establishment has been difturbed by a dangerous Rebellion, the Miniftry has been involved in many additional and fupernumerary Difficulties. It is a common Remark, that English Minifters never fare fo well as in a time of War with a foreign Power, which diverts the private Feuds and Animofities of the Nation, and turns their Efforts upon the common Enemy. As a foreign War is favourable to a Miniftry, a Rebellion is no lefs dangerous; if it fucceed, they are the first Perfons

who

who must fall a Sacrifice to it; if it is defeated, they naturally become odious to all the fecret Favourers and Abettors of it. Every Method they make use of for preventing or fuppreffing it, and for deterring others from the like Practices for the future, must be unacceptable and difpleafing to the Friends, Relations, and Accomplices of the Guilty. In Cafes where it is thought neceffary to make Examples, it is the Humour of the Multitude to forget the Crime and remember the Punishment. However, we have already feen, and still hope to fee, fo many Inftances of Mercy in his Majefty's Government, that our chief Ministers have more to fear from the Murmurs of their too violent Friends, than from the Res proaches of their Enemies.

A O X C KERRAS

YE

Efterday was fet apart as a Day of Publick Thanksgiving for the late extraordinary Succeffes, which have fecured to us every Thing that can be efteemed, and delivered us from every Thing that can be apprehended, by a Proteftant and a Free People. I cannot but obferve, upon this Occafion, the natural Tendency in fuch a National Devotion, to infpire Men with Sentiments of religious Gratitude, and to fwell their Hearts with inward Transports of Joy and Exultation.

When

When Inftances of Divine Favour are great in themselves, when they are fresh upon the Memory, when they are peculiar to a certain Country, and commemorated by them in large and folemn Affemblies; a Man muft be of a very cold or degenerate Temper, whose Heart doth not burn within him in the midst of that Praise and Adoration, which arifes at the fame Hour in all the different Parts of the Nation, and from the many Thousands of the People.

It is impoffible to read of extraordinary and National Acts of Worship, without being warmed with the Description, and feeling fome Degree of that Divine Enthufiafm, which fpreads itfelf among a joyful and religious Multitude, A part of that exuberant Devotion, with which the whole Affembly raised and animated one another, catches a Reader at the greatest Distance of Time, and makes him a kind of Sharer in it.

Among all the publick Solemnities of this Nature, there is none in Hiftory fo glorious as that under the Reign of King Solomon, at the Dedication of the Temple. Befides the great Officers of State, and the Inhabitants of Jerufalem, all the Elders and Heads of Tribes, with the whole Body of the People ranged under them, from one end of the Kingdom to the other, were fummoned to affift in it. We may guefs at the prodigious Number of this Affembly from the Sacrifice on which they feafted, confifting of a Hundred and Twenty Thousand Sheep, and Two Hundred. and Twenty Hecatombs of Oxen. When this vaft Congregation was formed into a regular Proceffion to attend the Ark of the Covenant, the King marched at the Head of his People, with Hymns and Dances, to the new Temple, which he had erected for its Reception. Jofephus tells us

that

2

that the Levites fprinkled the Way as they paffed with the Blood of Sacrifices, and burned the holy Incense in fuch Quantities as refreshed the whole Multitude with its Odours, and filled all the Region about them with Perfume. When the Ark was depofited under the Wings of the Cherubims in the holy Place, the great Confort of Praise began. It was enlivened with a Hundred and Twenty Trumpets, affifted with a proportionable Number of other kinds of mufical Inftruments, and accompanied with innumerable Voices of all the Singers of Ifrael who were inftructed and fet apart to religious Performances of this kind. As this mighty Chorus was extolling their Maker, and exciting the whole Nation thus assembled to the Praise of his neverceafing Goodness and Mercy, the Shekinah defcended: Or, to tell it in the more emphatical Words of holy Writ, It came to pass, as the Trumpets and Singers were as one, to make one Sound to be heard in praifing and thanking the Lord, and when they lift up their Voice with the Trumpets and Cymbals, and Inftruments of Mufick, and praifed the Lord, faying, For he is good, for his Mercy endureth for ever; that then the Houfe was filled with a Cloud. The Priefts themselves, not able to bear the Awfulness of the Appearance, retired into the Court of the Temple, where the King being placed upon a brazen Scaffold, fo as to be feen by the whole Multitude, bleffed the Congregation of Ifrael, and afterwards, fpreading forth his Hands to Heaven, offered up that Divine Prayer which is twice recorded at length in Scripture, and has always been looked upon as a Compofition fit to have proceeded from the wifeft of Men. He had no fooner finished his Prayer, when a Flash of Fire

fell

fell from Heaven and burned up the Sacrifice which lay ready upon the Altar. The People, whofe Hearts were gradually moved by the Solemnity of the whole Proceeding, having been exalted by the religious Strains of Mufick, and aw'd by the Appearance, of that Glory which filled the Temple, feeing now the miraculous Confumption of the Sacrifice, and obferving the Piety of their King, who lay proftrate before his Maker, bowed themselves with their Faces to the Ground upon the Pavement, and worshipped and praised the Lord, faying, For he is good, for his Mercy

endureth for ever.

What Happiness might not fuch a Kingdom. promife to itfelf, where the fame elevated Spirit of Religion ran through the Prince, the Priefts, and the People! But I fhall quit this Head, to obferve, that fuch an uncommon Fervour of Devotion fhewed itself among our own Countrymen, and in the Perfons of three Princes, who were the greatest Conquerors in our English. Hiftory. Thefe are Edward the Third, his Son the Black Prince, and Henry the Fifth. As for the first we are told that, before the famous Battle of Creffy, he spent the greatest Part of the Night in Prayer, and in the Morning received the Sacrament, with his Son, the chief of his Officers, and Nobility. The Night of that glorious Day was no lefs piously diftinguished by the Orders, which he gave out to his Army, that they should forbear all infulting of their Enemies, or boasting of their own Valour, and employ their time in returning Thanks to the great Giver of the Victory. The Black Prince, before the Battle of Poitiers, declared, that his whole Confidence was in the Divine Affiftance; and after that great Victory, behaved himself in all Particulars