Enemies raised the Siege And such plenty was left in their Camp that every one of the Besieged had wherewith not only to satisfy his hunger but to enrich himself Only that Nobleman that would not believe this when it was foretold by the Prophet did not live to tast of the Fruits of God Almighty's Victory being trodden to death in the Crowd II. But it is time to come to the second general point I observed from this Text viz. That the Happiness and Prosperity of Nations is to be attained the same way that any particular Man's happiness is that is to say by being sincerely virtuous and religious or as my Text expresses it by fearing God and keeping all his Commandments always This is a true Proposition both with respect to particular Persons and to Nations too but with this difference That if we take Happiness and Prosperity for that which the World accounts so that is to say the possession of a great many outward Blessings and the freedom from temporal evils and inconveniences the Proposition is not so universally true with reference to particular Persons as it is with reference to Nations and Kingdoms For every Man that fears God is not always blessed with happy outward Circumstances On the contrary some good Men are exposed to many and great Afflictions and Misfortunes and Sicknesses and Crosses all their lives long But it is certainly true of all Nations and Peoples whatsoever Every Nation or Society shall fare better or worse in this World exactly according as they fear God or despise and affront him exactly according to the degree they keep God's Commandments or break them Though it is not certain that every particular Man shall always do so And there is great reason that it should be thus For First We know that all God's ways are just and equal Now as to particular Persons there is a great room left for the dispensing this Justice and Equity to them For they being in their natures made to live for ever it is enough for the vindicating God's Justice that they be at any time hereafter either rewarded for their Piety and Virtue or punished for their Wickedness and abuse of God's Mercies So that wicked Men may be happy and prosperous here and good Men may suffer many afflictions and tribulations without any the least reflection on the Justice or Goodness of the great Governour of the World Because there is a farther day reserved for the adjusting all Mens Rewards according to their Works But now the consideration of publick Societies and Nations is quite different Nations are not made to be Immortal but end with this World No Society as a Society shall be called to a future account But all the Rewards and Punishments they are capable of as Societies must be adjudged and distributed to them in this present Life And therefore if we suppose God to be the Judge and Governour of the World and of all the Nations in it as well as he is the Judge and Governour of particular Persons We must likewise suppose that he administers all affairs so that Righteous and Religious Nations have in this World the reward of their Virtue in the blessings of Peace and Plenty and all manner of temporal Prosperity And on the other side impious and incorrigible Nations are likewise punished in this World for their wickedness either by severe Judgments or by a total destruction as God in his infinite Wisdom sees cause This now that I have offered is I think so reasonable that if there was no more to be said it ought to go a great way towards the making of the point I have in hand highly credible But in the second place there is a great deal more to be said The word of God doth all along bear testimony to the truth of this A multitude of Texts of Scripture there are that do most plainly give this account of God's dealing with Nations and Peoples that I have now mentioned There is no Judgment threatned to any Nation in the holy Scripture and abundance of Nations are there threatned but it is upon account of the sins and wickedness they were guilty of Which sins if they repented of so repented as to forsake them they might find mercy And accordingly we find in fact that God always dealt with Peoples and Nations according to these measures God had solemnly denounced destruction to the City of Ninive by his Prophet and that within forty days But upon the Repentance of the Ninevites and turning to God with all their hearts he reversed his Sentence though to the great discontent of the Prophet and gave them a further time On the other side he waited long for the Repentance of the Canaanites but would not destroy them because their sins though very hainous admitted a place for Repentance But when their iniquities were filled up to the measures according to which God proceeds in his destruction of Nations He then sent the Israelites to root them out and to take possession of their Land And thus was Nebuchadnezzar raised up by God to be a scourge to all the Nations about him for the punishment of their sins Nebuchadnezzar had indeed other things in his head That which he designed was the gratifying his own Ambition and enlarging his Dominions But these were not the ends which God had to serve by him God made use of him as his Instrument as his Servant and so he calls him for the rendring to the Nations that just recompence of vengeance which their sins called for I mention these things the rather because they are instances of God's dealing with Heathen Nations who were under no particular Covenant with God And I might have recourse likewise to the Histories of all Nations to shew the truth of this Name any Nation that was ever remarkable for Justice for Temperance and severity of Manners for Piety and Religion though it was in a wrong way that did not always thrive and grow great in the World and that did not always enjoy a plentiful portion of all those things which are accounted to make a Nation Happy and Flourishing And on the other side when that Nation has declined from its former Virtue and grown impious or dissolute in manners we appeal to Experience whether it has not likewise always proportionably sunk in its Success and good Fortunes I am sure any one that will be at the pains to read either the Greek or the Roman or even the Turkish History will meet with matter enough there to satisfy him of the truth of this observation But I confine my self to the Scripture and in that the History of the Iews is the most remarkable for indeed it makes up a great part of the Old Testament Now in that History it is worth our taking notice of That every degree of publick Vice and departure from God's Laws was always punished with publick Judgments And on the other side every degree of publick Repentance and
Reformation was always rewarded with publick Happiness and Prosperity So that any one that could make a right estimate of the Morals of that Nation and how it stood as to Virtue and Vice might constantly make a judgment likewise how it would fare with them as to their outward temporal affairs I must confess that generally speaking there is little force in those Arguments that are drawn from Examples But in the case I am now upon I think there is a great weight in them For though we cannot argue from God's dealing with one Person that he will just deal in the same manner with another Yet as to Nations and Kingdoms the case is otherwise as I before said For God's dispensations and Providences to them seem all to proceed upon one immutable Foundation which will be the same in all Ages and Countreys namely the expression and vindication of his Justice and Goodness in this World And for my part I have always been of this mind That there is no other difference between the History of God's dealings with his own People the Jews and that of other Nations but this That in other Nations the publick Events that happen'd whether good or bad though they were taken notice of yet they passed without any reflection on the true causes from whence they proceeded The Historians did indeed often lay their Fingers rightly upon the immediate visible outward occasions or means or instruments from whence their good or bad Fortune was derived to them But they searched no further They considered only second Causes and took no great notice of the first and principal Cause of all things God Almighty and his influencing humane affairs They left God in a great measure out of their Hypothesis and out of their History But now that the World might be awaken'd to a more hearty belief and sense of his Providence God took care to single out the Nation of the Jews and in them to give us a true Pattern or Platform of his dealings with all the Nations of the World And for that purpose he ordered that all the great strokes both of their departure from God and of their return to him And likewise both of the good or bad Fortune that did at any time befal that Nation should be faithfully Registred and the true Causes of them faithfully assigned That all Mankind might from thence receive Instruction how they ought to behave themselves towards God and what according to their different behaviours they were to expect To conclude this point By all that hath been said it appears That the State and Condition and Fortune of all Kingdoms and Nations is the very same with that of the Jews as it is represented by Achior the Ammonite in the advice he gave to Holofernes when he came up with an Army against that People You have the passage in Iudith 5.17 Whilst saith he these People sinned not before their God they prospered because the God that hateth iniquity was with them But when they departed from the way that he appointed them they were destroyed in many Battels after a wonderful sort and were led Captives into a land that was not theirs But now they are turned to their God and are come up from their Captivity and have again possessed Jerusalem Now therefore my Lord and Governour if there be any fault in this People so that they have sinned against their God let us consider that this shall be their ruin and let us go up that we may overcome them But if there be no iniquity in this People let my Lord pass by lest their Lord defend them and their God be for them and we become a reproach before all the World Thus it is and will be always with all States and Nations if they notoriously sin against their God this will be their ruin But if there be not found iniquity in them it is in vain for any Enemy to set upon them for God will be for them and their Lord will defend them If this which I have said be not sufficient to satisfy any one about the truth of this point I might bring other Proofs for it I might for instance in the third place insist upon this That Virtue and Piety do in their own nature tend to promote the wellfare and happiness of Peoples and Nations As on the other hand all Vice and Irreligion is destructive of humane Society And this without respect to any appointment or Decree of God that things should be managed in this way but purely in the very nature of the thing It is obvious That Virtue and Religion lay the surest Foundation for all those Blessings wherein the happiness of a Nation doth consist that is possible both by making Magistrates to govern well and by rendring the People easy to be governed And likewise by furnishing both the Governours and the governed with such kind of Principles and Habits as cannot fail with the Blessing of God to produce both Peace and Plenty and Victory and all other sorts of Prosperity in a Nation As on the other hand all Vice and Wickedness and Profaneness and Impiety do sow the worst Seeds in the World for the dissolving and breaking in pieces all Societies or at least for the so enfeebling them that they shall either be in a very low wretched condition among themselves if they have no Enemies or if they have any become an easy prey to the next Invader But I will not enter upon this Argument because I think the matter needs no further proof And I would spend the rest of my time in making some Application of what hath been said upon this point to the business of our present meeting on this day WE are here met together for the solemn Humiliation of our selves with Fasting and Prayer before Almighty God In order to the Supplicating his Divine Majesty for the Pardon of our Sins and the Sins of our Nation And the imploring his Blessing and Protection to the King and Kingdom by continuing those Mercies to us we do enjoy by averting those Judgments from us we have reason to fear and more particularly by giving a Happy Issue to that dangerous War in which his Majesty with the Kingdom is now engaged And very great reason there is that you the Representatives of the People of England should most seriously and solemnly join in this Religious Office since the Fortunes of the Nation you represent did never more lie at stake than at this present You have hitherto been acting and endeavouring for the Happiness and Security of your Nation by Humane Methods and we all put up our daily Prayers that what you have done and what you shall do may be for the Glory of God and the good of his Church and the Safety Honour and Wellfare of their Majesties and their Kingdoms And we hope all will so come to pass But now on this day both You and We are to think of other Methods for the procuring Success to
contrary But then as for the business of Iesus Christ and that which we call the Christian Religion what a very little do a great many among us make of that To talk of Christ's being sent for the Saviour of the World and that he died to procure the Pardon of our Sins and that we must believe all the Scripture-Doctrines concerning him and worship him as a God why what stuff is this to a great many of the refined Spirits of our Age It is very well if they can so far prevail with themselves as to own the Being of God and to acknowledge their obligation to the Duties of moral Honesty and Justice which natural Reâ—igion teacheth But as for Iesus Christ and the Trinity and the Sacraments and all revealed Religion they beg your Pardon for these things they are too nice and subtil for them to meddle with Not but that they are good Christians all the while For they can come to our Churches and to our Sacraments too if there be occasion Because indeed they will always be of the Religion of the Country where they live But at the same time they do this they do no more really believe or expect any Spiritual Benefit in our Religion nor look for any more Salvation from Christ Iesus than they would expect from Mahomet if they should live in Turky But this is not all Even among those that do believe in Jesus Christ and own his Religion yet what little regard have they generally speaking to his Worship and Service It is very well if they now and then afford their presence on Sundays at the publick Religious Assemblies I will not examine with what designs and for what ends they come thither nor how devoutly and religiously their hearts are affected during the time they are there I say it is very well that they are there at all But even of those that do come thither and do once a Week seem to have a sense of publick Religion I say how few are there of them that take any care of worshipping God either in their Families or in their Closets Why if a Man was truly Religious he could not pass a day without solemn Addresses to his Maker and to his Redeemer He would pray in his Closet constantly and if he had a Family he would pray with them constantly And if he had no Family he would constantly resort to those places where he might pay his Tribute of publick Prayer and Praises to God unless he had urgent business to hinder him But is there any thing of this to be seen among us except in some few persons here and there Are there not twenty Families for one that live without so much as the shew of any Devotion Without any sort of Prayer or Worship of God in their Houses Nay and I am afraid I may say there are twenty for one even of private Persons that live without Devotion in their Closets that never call upon God never renew their vows to their Saviour never pay him any Homage except perhaps once a Week in a formal way when the Custom of the Country obliges them to resort to the Church The truth is so little sense have most of us of Religion and Devotion so little regard of our Duty to God and our dependance upon him and expressing that dependance either in private or in our Families That were it not for that Happy Institution of the Lord's day on the which we are obliged by the Laws of God and Man to meet together for the Worship of God we should hardly see any Face of Religion among us and in a little time should scarce be distinguished from Heathens But yet this is not the worst of our Case Our gross Immoralities that Horrid Lewdness and Debauchery that is every where to be observed in our days doth still increase our Guilt and cry to Heaven for Judgment upon our Nation It would make a Man's heart ake that has any sense of God or Religion to think of the Riots the Drunkenness the continued course of spending our time and our Parts and our substance in Revelling and Gaming and all manner of such excesses that is daily practised among us And yet at the same time the Men that thus live think themselves very honest Men all the while It would really amaze a Man and put him upon admiring God's Patience that he doth not presently confound the World if he did seriously reflect on the many filthy lewd Speeches and Actions the numerous wicked intrigues of Lust the Infamous Whoredoms and Adulteries that are without any sense of shame daily carried on and acted among us and that by Person too that have the Face to shew themselves at our Holy Assemblies Especially if to these be added the infinite Lies and Cheats and Perjuries which our Land groans under The Blasphemous Oaths and Imprecations the Damn me 's and Sink me's the Horrid Prosanations of the Name of God and all things Sacred that are in every place in every street where we pass belched out in contempt of the Almighty and his Laws by all sorts of Persons of all sorts of Qualities from the Beggar in the street to the Man of Honour and that for no other reason in the World but because it is their Humour or their Custom And lastly to fill up the measure of our iniquities to our other reigning Vices we have added that of Hypocrisy too which one would think should not often be found among so much Profaneness How many of us make a mighty noise with Religion and are Zealous even to Bigottry in the defence of it and yet have not one grane of inward sense of what it obligeth them to Nay so far from that that if Religion be but in their â—ouths If they do but appear Zealous enough for the Protestant Cause If they can but cry loud enough The Temple of the Lord The Temple of the Lord as the Jews did in the Prophet They matter not how contradictory their Actions are to the Precepts of that Religion they do profess Their Zeal for so good a Cause will sanctify all their other Actions be they never so wicked and unjust But if this be not Hypocrisy there is no such thing in the World Sure I am it was this sort of Carriage that God so often reproves the Jews for by his Prophets and upon account of which they are so often reproached as a Generation of Hypocrites and for which he threatens them with utter destruction O my Brethren what have we to say to these things If the Case be thus with us as I am afraid it is What Plea have we to put in for our selves If God should let loose our Enemies upon us the Enemies of our Nation and of our Religion and should give us over as a Prey unto them what have we to reply Truly nothing that I know of except that of the Psalmist Righteous art thou O Lord and Iust are thy Iudgments But