Glory be to God's great name! the LORD has rebuked him; and that too at a time when we had little reafon to expect fuch a bleffing at Gon's hands. My dear hearers, neither the prefent frame of my heart, nor the occafion of your late folemn meeting, lead me to give you a detail of our public vices. Though, alas! they are so many, so notorious, and withal of such a crimson-dye, that a gospel minister would not be altogether inexcufable, was he, even on fuch a joyful occafion, to lift up his voice like a trumpet, to fhew the British nation their tranfgreffion, and the people of America their fin. However, though I would not caft a difmal fhade upon the pleafing picture the caufe of our late rejoicings fet before us; yet thus much may, and ought to be said, that as GOD has not dealt fo bountifully with any people as with us, so no nation under heaven has dealt more ungratefully with Him. We have been, like Capernaum, lifted up to heaven in privileges, and for the abuse of them, like her, have deferved to be thruft down into hell. How well foever it may be with us, in refpect to our civil and ecclefiaftical conftitution, yet in regard to our morals, Ifaiah's description of the Jewish polity is too applicable, The whole head is fick, the whole heart is faint; from the crown of the head to the fole of our feet, we are full of wounds and bruises, and putrifying fores." We have, Jeshurun-like, waxed fat and kicked. We have played the harlot against GoD, both in regard to principles and practices. "Our gold is become dim, and our fine gold changed." We have crucified the Son of GOD afresh, and put him to an open fhame. Nay, CHRIST has been wounded in the house of his friends. And every thing long ago feemed to threaten an immediate ftorm. But, O the long-fuffering and goodness of GOD to us-ward! When all things feemed ripe for deftruction, and matters were come to fuch a crifis, that God's praying people began to think, that though Noah, Daniel and Job, were living, they would only deliver their own fouls; yet then in the midst of judgment the Moft High remembered mercy, and when a popish enemy was breaking in upon us like a flood, the LORD himself graciously lifted up a standard. This to me does not seem to be one of the most unfavourable circumftances which have attended this mighty deliver

F 3

ance

ance; nor do I think you will look upon it as a circumftance altogether unworthy your obfervation. Had this cockatrice indeed been crushed in the egg, and the young Pretender driven back upon his first arrival, it would undoubtedly have been a great bleffing. But not fo great as that for which you lately affembled to give GOD thanks: for then his Majefty would not have had fo good an opportunity of knowing his enemies, or trying his friends. The British fubjects would in a manner have loft the fairest occafion that ever offered to express their loyalty and gratitude to the rightful fovereign. France would not have been fo greatly humbled; nor fuch an effectual stop have been put, as we truft there now is, to any fuch further Popish plot, to rob us of all that is near and dear to us. "Out of the eater therefore hath come forth meat, and out of the ftrong hath come forth fweetnefs." The Pretender's eldest fon is fuffered not only to land in the North-West Highlands in Scotland, but in a little while he becomes a great band. This for a time is not believed, but treated as a thing altogether incredible. The friends of the government in those parts, not for want of loyalty, but of fufficient authority to take up arms, could not refift him. He is permitted to pafs on with his terrible banditti, and, like the comet that was lately feen, fpreads his baleful influences all around him. He is likewife permitted to gain a fhort-liv'd triumph by a victory over a body of our troops at Preston-Pans, and to take a temporary poffeffion of the metropolis of Scotland. Of this he makes his boaft, and informs the public, that Providence had hitherto favoured him with wonderful fuccefs, led him in the way to victory, and to the capital of the "antient kingdom, though he came without foreign aid.” Nay, he is further permitted to prefs into the very heart of England. But now the Almighty interpofes. Hitherto he was to go, and no further. Here were his malicious defigns to be ftaid. His troops of a fudden are driven back. Away they post to the Highlands, and there they are fuffered not only to increafe, but alfo to collect themselves into a large body, that having, as it were, what Caligula once wished Rome had, but one neck, they might be cut off with one blow.

The

The time, manner, and inftrument of this victory, deferves our notice. It was on a general faft-day, when the clergy and good people of Scotland were lamenting the disloyalty of their perfidious countrymen, and, like Mofes, lifting up their hands, that Amalek might not prevail. The victory was total and decifive. Little blood was fpilt on the fide of the Royalifts. And, to crown all, Duke William, his Majefty's youngest fon, has the honour of firft driving back, and then defeating the rebel-army. A prince, who in his infancy and youth, gave early proofs of an uncommon bravery and nobleness of mind; a prince, whofe courage has increased with his years. Who returned wounded from the battle of Dettingen, behaved with furprizing bravery at Fontenoy, and now, by a conduct and magnanimity becoming the high office he fuftains, like his glorious predeceffor the Prince of Orange, has delivered three kingdoms from the dread of popifh cruelty, and arbitrary power. What renders it ftill more remarkable is, The day on which his Highness gained this victory, was the day after his birth-day, when he was entering on the 26th year of his age; and when Sullivan, one of the Pretender's privy-council, like another Ahitophel, advised the rebels to give our foldiers battle, prefuming they were furfeited and over-charged with their yesterday's rejoicings, and confequently unfit to make any great ftand against them. But, glory be to GOD, who catches the wife in their own craftinefs! his counfel, like Ahitophel's, proves abortive. Both General and foldiers were prepared to meet them. "GOD taught their hands to war, and their fingers to fight," and brought the Duke, after a deserved flaughter of fome thoufands of the rebels, with most of his brave foldiers, victorious from the field.

If we then take a diftinct view of this notable tranfaction, and trace it in all the particular circumstances that have attended it, I believe we must with one heart and voice confefs, that if it be a mercy for a ftate to be delivered from a worse than a Catiline's confpiracy, or a church to be refcued from a hotter than a Dioclefian perfecution; if it be a mercy to be delivered from a religion that turns plough-fhares into fwords, and pruning-hooks into fpears, and makes it meritorious to fhed proteftant blood; if it be a mercy to have all our pre

fent invaluable privileges, both in church and ftate, fecured to us more than ever; if it be a mercy to have these great things done for us, at a feafon, when for our crying fins, both church and ftate juftly deferved to be overturned; and if it be a mercy to have all this brought about for us, under GOD, by one of the blood-royal, a prince acting with an experience far above his years; if any, or all of these are mercies, then have you lately commemorated one of the greatest mercies that ever the glorious GOD vouchfafed to the British

nation.

Should we re

Rejoice then

in the LORD,

And shall we not rejoice and give thanks? fuse, would not the ftones cry out against us? we may and ought: but, O let our rejoicing be and run in a religious channel. This, we find, has been the practice of God's people in all ages. When he was pleased, with a mighty hand, and out-ftretched arm, to lead the Ifraelites through the Red-Sea, as on dry ground," Then fang Mofes and the children of Ifrael; and Miriam the prophetess, the fifter of Aaren, took a timbrel in her hand, and all the women went out after her. And Miriam anfwered them, Sing ye to the LORD; for he hath triumphed gloriously." When GOD fubdued Jabin, the King of Canaan, before the children of Ifrael, "then fang Deborah and Barak on that day, faying, "Praife ye the LORD for the avenging of Ifrael." When the ark was brought back out of the hands of the Philistines, David, though a king, danced before it. And, to mention but one inftance more, which may ferve as a general directory to us on this and fuch-like occafions: when the great Head of the church had refeued his people from the general maffacre intended to be executed upon them by a cruel and ambitious Haman, " Mordecai fent letters unto all the Jews that were in all the provinces of the King Abafuerus, both nigh and far, to eftablish among them, that they should keep the fourteenth day of the month Adar, and the fifteenth day of the fame yearly, as the days wherein the Jews rested from their enemies, and the month which was turned unto them from forrow unto joy, and from mourning into a good day that they fhould make them days of feafting and joy, and of fending portions one to another, and gifts to the poor." And why fhould we not go and do likewife?

:

And fhall we not alfo, on fuch an occafion, express our gratitude to, and make honourable mention of, thofe worthies who have fignalized themselves, and been ready to facrifice both lives and fortunes at this critical juncture?

This would be to act the part of thofe ungrateful Ifraelites, who are branded in the book of GOD, for not shewing kindnefs to the house of " Jerub-Baal, namely Gideon, according to all the goodness which he fhewed unto Ifrael." Even a Pharaoh could prefer a deferving Joseph, Ahasuerus a Mordecai, and Nebuchadnezzar a Daniel, when made inftruments of fignal fervice to themselves and people. My heart, fays Deborah, is towards (i. e. I have a particular veneration and regard for) the Governors of Ifrael that offered themselves willingly. And bleffed above women fhall Fael the wife of Heber the Kenite be; for fhe put her hand to the nail, and her righthand to the workman's hammer, and with the hammer fhe fmote Sifera, fhe fmote off his head, when he had pierced and ftricken through his temples." And fhall we not say, "Bleffed above men let his Royal Highness the Duke of Cumberland be; for through his inftrumentality, the great and glorious JEHOVAH hath brought mighty things to pass?" Should not our hearts be towards the worthy Archbishop of York, the Royal Hunters, and thofe other English heroes who offered themselves fo willingly? Let the names of Blakeney, Bland, and Rea, and all thofe who waxed valiant in fight on this important occafion, live for ever in the British annals. And let the name of that great, that incomparable brave foldier of the King, and a good foldiet of JESUS CHRIST, Colonel Gardiner, (excufe me if I here drop a tear: he was my intimate friend) let his name, I fay, be had in everlasting remembrance.

But, after all, is there not an infinitely greater debt of gratitude and praife due from us, on this occafion, to Him that is higher than the highest, even the King of kings and Lord of Lords, the bleffed and only Potentate? Is it not his arm, his ftrong and mighty arm, (what inftruments foever may have been made ufe of) that hath brought us this falvation? And may I not therefore addrefs you, in the exulting language of the beginning of this pfalm, from which we have taken. our text? "O give thanks unto the LORD, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the people. Sing unto