and what time he hath given us to repent, how slow and unwilling he appears to let our enemies proceed to our total destruction, it cannot but kindle in our breasts a most reviving persuasion, indeed a full assurance of hope*, that would we but yet be unanimous and religious, we might yet by his blessing be safe and prosperous. And may the Lord so bless us, that we may see Jerusalem in prosperity all our life long: but let them be confounded and turned backward, as many as have evil will at Sion.

*Heb. vi. 11.

† Psalm cxxviii. 6.

Psalm cxxix. 5.

SERMON IX.

PREACHED APRIL 25, 1749, ON THE THANKSGIVING FOR THE PEACE.

PSALM XXIX. 10.

The Lord shall give his people the blessing of

peace.

WE are met this day to thank God for a mercy, that hath long been the object of our earnest wishes, and solemn prayers; that we have often had but small hope of obtaining, and yet now have possessed many months, with an increasing prospect of its continuance on which account our joy is still more reasonable, though it must, from the constitution of our nature, be less warmly felt, than it was at first. Accordingly we have just been expressing it in the divine presence. And instruction from this place was not previously necessary, to excite our gratitude for a benefit, so visible and so important. But it may contribute, not a little, to fix in our breasts a more durable sense of what we have acknowledged : and, which is the end of all, direct us to such behaviour, as will secure and improve the happiness we enjoy.

I shall therefore at present,

I. Set before you the blessing of peace.

II. Shew you, that it is the gift of God.

III. Press you to remember, that only his people

are entitled to it: and consequently to consider, whether we are such; and to labour that we may, in the highest degree.

I. I shall set before you the blessing of peace.

Man appears, from the harmless make of his body, the conversable disposition of his mind, the tenderness of his affections, the sovereignty of his reflecting principle, the necessity of assistance in his numerous wants, and the rules of life prescribed him by express revelation, to be formed for a social inoffensive creature. Now the natural state of each

being is the happy one. And the happiness of peace is like that of health: it spreads through the whole of the civil, as that doth of the animal constitution; and furnishes vigour and pleasure to every part, without being distinctly perceived in one more than another: for which reason we are apt to overlook the felicity of both, till the loss of them for a time renews our sense of their value; and even such experience usually doth not long preserve it in our memory. Therefore to discern sufficiently the advantages of peace, we must recollect the miseries of

war.

To these we seldom attend farther, than we immediately feel them. And the generality feel only the expence which indeed is a sore evil, and hath been for many years past, and must be for many to come, a heavy burden to us. Persons of low degree are sadly straitened by it in their enjoyment of the common comforts and necessaries of life. Their superiors, it is true, need only undergo a retrenchment of their superfluities: which they might bear, if they would, without much uneasiness, or any harm. But as too many of them are pleased to reckon their grandeur and luxury, their follies and

their vices, the most inseparable privileges of their rank; they must, by retaining these, be distressed equally with others, when the demands of the state are larger than ordinary. And as their usual resource is the very bad one, of supplying a fund for extravagance and immorality, by refusing acts of piety, charity, and justice; they force multitudes round them to suffer with them and for them. Frequently indeed the load of taxes may not be the cause of this dishonourable behaviour: but even then it is a plausible pretence and excuse for it. Nor doth the mischief stop at particular persons: but the public, exhausted by payments, and sunk under debts, becomes incapable of exerting itself, even for its own preservation, when future occasions require.

Yet, melancholy as these things are, an article much more shocking, and which ought to be the first in our thoughts, is that of the various and continual toils and hardships, that must be endured by such numbers of poor creatures, exposing themselves in defence of others, through so long a course of time: the loss of so many thousands of lives by sickness and in battle; the grief of so many relations and friends, the miseries of so many destitute families: part of these, our fellow-subjects; not a few of them possibly very dear to one or other of us; a second part, our allies; the rest, called indeed enemies: but it may be scarce any of them in fault for that enmity, how much soever their rulers are; and all of them, in truth, our brethren; of the same blood, and, in essentials, the same faith, though taught them with a mixture of dangerous errors.

Further still war not only weakens and afflicts a community in these respects, but interrupts the freedom of commerce, retards the propagation of

knowledge, prevents useful improvements, takes off the public attention from domestic concerns, furnishes occasion for abuses, obstructs the remedy of inconveniences, till they grow inveterate and hard to cure; in short, disorders and unhinges the whole system of civil affairs. Then besides, which is at vastly more alarming consideration yet, all the time that hostilities last, who can tell how they may end? and had ours ended, as they easily might, in our being absolutely overcome, and obliged to accept the victor's terms, what would they have been?

But war is also a state of no less wickedness, than calamity and terror. Whenever it breaks out; one side, at least, must have acted grievously contrary to humanity and justice; contrary too, in all likelihood, to solemn treaties: and that from no better motives, than little resentments, groundless or distant fears, eagerness of gaining unnecessary advantages, restless ambition, false glory, or wantonness of power. To such detestable idols are whole armies and nations deliberately sacrificed: though every suffering, thus caused, is a heinous crime; and every death, a murder. Nor will the side, which at first is more innocent, fail in the progress to be guilty of many shocking transgressions, in common with the other. The whole body of a people are apt to grow uncharitable, unpitying, implacable; and the soldiery will plunge of course into cruelty, rapine, profaneness, lewdness, intemperance: not to add, that when the poor wretches have once changed the ordinary employments of life for this, they will be in great danger of never settling honestly and soberly to them again. Some of these things, to worldly or inconsiderate minds, may appear small matters. But every benevolent, or merely prudent person, will