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PSALM CXLVI. 3,4.

Put not your trust in Princes, nor in the
Son of Man, in whom there is no
Help.
His Breath goeth forth, he returneth to
his Earth, in that very day his Thoughts
perish.

HE Angels never die, but are immortal as the Souls of Men. Death cannot enter the Celeftial Palace, tho it makes frequent Vifits to the Courts of Princes. This lower World is the Place of its Reign, the upper Regions are free from its Tyranny. Here all that defcend from the first Adam, however diftinguished by Titles of Honour, cannot be exempted from the Stroke of Death.

They that are Titular Gods, lifted up above the rest of their Fellow-Creatures, yet die like pfal.82.6, Men. There is a vast distance betwixt a Prince 7. and a Subject while living, but Death puts both upon a level: They lie down alike in the Duft,

and

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Job. 21. 26. and the Worms fhall cover them. Death is that arbitrary Prince that overthrows all; Tour FaZach. 1. 5. thers, where are they? and the Prophets, do they live for ever? They whom God hath honoured with the highest Dignity in the Church, have fallen by Death, as well as the Noble and Powerful Guardians of the State: The richest Princes, the greatest Heroes, the brighest Examples of Virtue, muft die as well as other Men. Death is a Monarch, that not only empties Cottages, but unthrones Princes, and on a fudden changes a glittering Palace into a dark Houfe of Mourning.

A fad Inftance hereof we have lately feen, in the furprizing and much lamented Death of that High and Mighty Prince WILLIAM III. King of Great Britain and Ireland. What use is proper to be made of fo dark a Providence, the Words of the Text inform us.

Put not your Trust in Princes, nor in the Son of Man, in whom there is no Help. His Breath goeth forth, he returneth to his Earth, in that very day his Thoughts perish. In which Words we may obferve,

Firft, A Dehortation, Put not your Truft in Princes, nor in the Son of Man.

Secondly, The Reafon upon which 'tis founded, and that is, the utter Incapacity of Princes to help and fave thofe that truft in them; which the Pfalmift does amplify and demonftrate by two Things.

ift. From their natural Frailty, they are fubject to Death as well as other Men; His Breath goeth forth, he returneth to his Earth.

2ly. From the immediate Confequence of this, as foon as ever he expires; In that very Day his Thoughts perish.

I

I fhall (as God fhall affift) difcourfe of thefe Things in their Order, and then make fome Improvement fuitable to this fad Solemnity, and that dark Providence we are now under.

First, I am to confider the Dehortation, Put not your Truft in Princes, nor in the Son of Man. I fhall fum up what I have to fay to this general Head in the following Propofitions.

1. Men are very apt to place too great Confidence in crowned Heads; the Truth of this may be learned from the Hiftory of all Ages, and our own Experience concurs to confirm it. The Pfalmift tells us, That fome truft in Cha- Pfal. 20.7. riots and fome in Horfes, i. e. in the Strength and Power of their Governors. There is not any thing more common, than for People to put a mighty Confidence in a Prince; efpecially if his admirable Qualities have diftinguished him from other Monarchs; if his Courage and Conftancy have rendered him as fuccefsful in the Toils of War, as he has been defervedly famous for his Prudence and Piety in the Arts of Government.

We are apt to think, if Men of Power are on our fide, that our Mountain ftands so strong Pfal. 30.6, it can never be moved; and fo flatter our felves 7. with a long and unfhaken Felicity, altho we fee that the Fashion of this World is continually paffing away, and its best and brightest Inhabitants daily taking leave of it. Now this fprings from our Ignorance, and the narrow Compafs of our Thoughts, together with the Carnality of our prefent Conftitution, which (as one expreffes it), ftrongly inclines us to depend upon Princes, either for the obtaining

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what

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what we defire, or the preventing what we fear. For we commonly view things in a falfe and deceiving Light, and from thence take an estimate of their Sufficiency and Strength; not confidering that if we make an Arm of Flesh the Object of our Truft, the end of fuch a Dependence will be our Confufion. Yet thus it was with us generally of late, till God convinced us by terrible Things in Righteousness; for he shook the Throne like Mount Sinai, and we were on a fudden invelop'd with Clouds and thick Darkness.

Thus

2. Tho a Prince deferves ever fo well from the State he governs, yet he is not abfolutely to be trufted in. Whoever hath an entire Dependence upon any Creature on Earth, expofes himself to the Curfe of Heaven. Jer. 17. 1. faith the Lord, Curfed be the Man that trufteth in Man, and maketh Flesh his Arm, and whofe Heart departeth from the Lord. The Jewish Nation was often guilty of this Sin; I'll only mention an inftance or two wherein God difcovers his Displeasure against them for it. One is that of King Afa; And at that time Hanani the Seer came to Afa King of Judah, and faid unto him, Because thou haft relied on the King of Affyria, and not relied on the Lord thy God, therefore is the Hoft of the King of Affyria efcaped out of thy hands. Instead of trusting in God, he placed all his Confidence in the Strength and Power of his Confederates and Allies, which was a kind of renouncing God as an Object of Truft; and herein did his Heart wretchedly depart from the Lord. Again, how does God aggravate the Crime of Ifa. 31. 3. the Ifraelites, for their trufting in Egypt! The Egyptians are Men, and not Gods. So that, in fhort, to place an absolute Trust in Princes, is

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to alienate the Rights of the Godhead; 'tis tö rob the Deity of its Glory, and to turn a Prince into a provoking Idol of Jealoufy. God cannot admit of Rivals in his Throne, for he will not give his Glory to another.

3. 'Tis not the Design of the Royal Pfalmift, when he cautions against putting of our Trust in Princes, to depreciate that Faith and Credit, that Honour and Deference which is due to all good Kings from their own Subjects. The Pfalmift himself was a great and a mighty Prince; and we cannot reasonably think, that he would recommend any difloyal Practices. What tho he tells us we must not trust in Princes, but rather advises to place our Confidence in Him, by whom Kings reign, as the best and fafeft courfe? Yet I fay, this is not defigned to leffen the Gredit and Honour of Good Kings; 'tis not to render them contemptible in the Eyes of their People, as unfit to be regarded in the Civil Affairs of Life, and the Adminiftrations of Government. The Pfalmift cannot fairly be understood, as undervaluing Kingly Dignity, and representing Princes as ufelefs Statues; but, as I intimated before, the Design of the Caution is to prevent fuch a Trust in them, as is exclufive of the Divine Providence.

A good Prince, as he is the fpecial Care of Heaven, fo he is an extraordinary Blessing to a People; 'tis faid, that because the Lord loved i Kings tāj Ifrael for ever, therefore made he thee, King, 9* (speaking to Solomon) to do Judgment and Fuftice. The Honour that is due to a Rightful and Law ful Sovereign, involves in it all Duty and Alle giance, viz. the doing our utmost to support his Grown and Dignity, the putting the most candid Constructions upon his Actions, because

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