delivering them out of their evil Gircumftances; but to the making any Nation or People great, and happy, and profperous. For inftance, if it fhould please God upon our hearty Repentance and fervent Prayers on this Day to pour out his Spirit upon all Orders and Degrees of Men among us, and make all her Majefty's Subjects in their feveral Stations fincerely good and virtuous; if it would please God to infpire all her publick and her private Counfels with true Wisdom and Unanimity, and a hearty Zeal for promoting the publick Good before any private Interefts: If it should please him to infpire all her Officers and Soldiers with Courage, and Refolution, and Diligence; all her Minifters with Integrity and Uncorruptnefs; and all her People with the true Fear of God, and loyal Hearts to her Majesty, and fincere Love and Charity to one another: I would ask whether these very things alone, whatever Difcouragements we might have from Storms and Tempeft, and all other things that depend upon natural Causes, would not give us a glorious Profpect of happy Times, and put us into comfortable Hopes of having those Judgments averted which we are now afraid of, and of obtaining all those Bleffings which on this Day we pray for. And yet all these things I have now mentioned are out of the Reach, as I faid, of mechanical Caufes. The Laws of Motion have nothing

to do with them; but they are the pure Result of the Grace and Spirit of God, and of our own hearty Prayers and Endea

yours.

But, Secondly, As for thofe outward Events which come upon this World, that feem to depend upon fuch Principles as we have no Power over; fuch as Health or Sickness, Peace or War, good or bad Weather, Plenty or Scarcity, Victory over our Enemies, or being overthrown by them, and the like: Tho' it be acknowledged that all these have natural Caufes, yet they have not fuch natural Causes as are neceffary. They come to us in a natural way, but do not come to us in fuch a neceffary unavoidable way as the Objection fuppofeth. For here is the thing; admitting that God Almighty in his Government of the World doth not ufually ftep out into extraordinary Actions, beyond or above the Course of Nature, yet he has fo contrived the Course of Nature that fuch Events as we speak of may be hindered or may be forwarded; may come to pafs, or may not come to pafs; may happen this way, or may happen another way, as Men behave themselves towards God, and as he fees beft for them; and this without any Violence done to Nature, or without tranfgreffing the Laws of it. So that there is Room enough, abundantly enough left for our Endeavours and our Prayers; and as we

ufe

use them, or use them not, the Success and the Event fhall prove accordingly.

It is a great Miftake to think that the Affairs of this outward World are managed wholly by mechanical Powers, or, which is the fame thing, by neceffary Caufes. No, the Wills and the Actions of Mankind have a mighty Influence upon them, as is vifible in fome of thofe things I mentioned, as Peace and War, Health and Sickness, Victory and Overthrow. And no body, I hope, will fay that the Actions of Men are neceffary. But befides, the Angels and separate Spirits who are in a great Number every where, and are the invifible Minifters of God's Providence, have not only an Influence over the Actions of Mankind, by fuggesting to their Minds a thousand things that perhaps they would otherwise never have thought of; but they have also a mighty Influence over those Powers of Nature that seem to act moft neceffarily: I mean the Elements, as we call them, from whofe various Combinations arife Storms and Tempefts, fruitful and barren Seafons, fickly or healthful Years: Both these Caufes, I fay, the free, as well as the neceffary Agents of this World, those invifible Ministers of God do fo difpofe, and direct, and order, as that they fhall produce fuch Events as God fees fitteft for Mankind, whether it be by way of Judgment as a Punishment of their Sins, or by

way

way of Mercy, as a Teftimony of God's Acceptance of them. And all this too comes to pass in a natural way, that is, it is the common and ufual Method of God's Providence in the Government of the World. But then I add further, whenever there happens a juft Occafion for God to exercise his extraordinary Power above or against the Courfe of Nature, he will not fail to do that likewife; and abundance of Inftances of that in his Government of the World he hath given us, and, for any thing that I know, doth yet give us.

These things confidered, we have no Reafon to imagine that because things are commonly difpenfed to us by the Ministry of fecond Caufes, of which we can give fome natural Account, that therefore God had no Hand in bringing fuch things to pafs in the World, but that they come fortuitoufly or neceffarily, and cannot be hindered or forwarded by the Prayers or Endeavours of Mankind: No, certainly; tho' the Effect, whatever it was, was immediately produced by fecond Causes, yet it was God, that, by the Minifters of his Providence, laid the Train of those things, and fo ordered and managed them, as that righteous and good Ends fhould be served by the Effects that they produce. So that, as our bleffed Saviour hath told us, not fo much Mat. 10. as a Sparrow doth fall to the Ground, but

29.

that

that it may be truly faid, it is by the Will of our heavenly Father.

To conclude this Point therefore: Since all Events whatsoever do so abfolutely depend upon the Will and Pleasure of God, it plainly follows, that it is fo far from being needlefs or impertinent to have Recourfe to folemn Humiliation, and Fafting and Prayer in the time of publick Danger, as the Objection would infer, that, on the contrary, the Use of these is indispensably neceffary, if we would have our Affair, to profper. These being the Means which both the Light of Nature hath directed Mankind to for that Purpose, and accordingly hath been always practised by all Nations who have had any Senfe of God and his Providence, and the Means likewife which God himself has appointed, and to the Efficacy of which he has given many Teftimonies in his holy Word, as I have already fhew'd.

II. Having thus done with the firft Head of my Discourse, I now proceed to the other, viz. What is required to the due Performance of publick Fafting and Prayer that fo they may be effectual for the averting the Judgments of God, and obtaining his Bleffing.

I have already read to you the Account that the Prophet has here given us concerning the Behaviour of the Ninevites upon

this