THERE is no Part of the Bible that more deserves the Thoughts of inquisitive Men, than the Writings of the Pro­phets; and Persons of very high En­dowments, may find sufficient Em­ploynemt in unfolding the Types and Figures of the Jewish OEconomy, and in searching into the Depths of the Prophetical Predictions. And the metaphorical Style of the Prophets is very proper to inspire the Minds of the Attentive, with noble Ideas of God's Wisdom and Providence, and to [Page 3] affect us with the most lively Image of the glori­ous Kingdom of God and Christ, the Happiness of those that shall have a Share in the Triumphs of it, and the Terribleness of the Punishments which are denounced against such as will not have Him to Rule over them.

The Books of the Prophets unfold the Methods of Providence in many remarkable Instances.—Such as—God's Disposal of Kingdoms and Go­vernments, and making Use of wicked Princes and Nations to be the Instruments of his Justice in punishing others, as bad or worse—The gradual Discovery of the Coming of the Messiah, and the several Steps and Advancements by which God introduced his Kingdom into the World, and will still carry it on, 'till the Consummation of all Things.—And there is a Treasure of heavenly Wisdom contained in the Writings of the Prophets, that can never be exhausted; and 'tis most reaso­nable to believe that some Parts of these Prophe­cies reach to the End of the World; and 'tis al­so reasonable to expect, that in every Age, Provi­dence should open some new Scene, which will give further Insight into the Meaning of these sa­cred Books.—And to extend the Prophetic Views to the End of the World, seems most agreable to that Description of God's Prescience, which is gi­ven us in Isaiah, Ch. 46. ver. 10. viz. That He declares the End from the Beginning.—So that even when the whole Mystery of God's Dispensations shall be finished, it will appear that Nothing is contained in them, but what God hath formerly declared to his Servants the Prophets; as 'tis ex­presly affirmed, Rev. 10. 7.

[Page 4] Isaiah deservedly holds the first Rank in that noble Order of Prophets; as he foretells the future State of the Church more frequently and fully than the others, and in the loftiest Language, and boldest Metaphors.—His supernatural Gift of Prophecy added a new Lustre to the greatness of his Birth, and his liberal Education furnished him with a noble Eloquence, and suitable to the Dig­nity of his Argument.—"His Style is great, noble, sublime & florid: He paints Things to the Life, but with the strongest and liveliest Strokes."^*

It has been observed, that the Commentaries on this Prophet fall short of a full Explication of his Book, on Account of his Profoundness of Tho't, Loftiness of Expression, and Extent of Prophecy; and therefore may it not be said, that I, so infe­riour in divine Knowledge, need an Apology for attempting a Sermon on so remarkable a Passage of his Prophecy as my Text, especially on this solemn Occasion, and before so great and learned and honourable an Assembly.

Isaiah lived and prophesied under four Kings of Judah, Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah—If we suppose (for 'tis not certain) that the Prophe­cies &c. of this Book are put in the same Order in which they were at first written & published, the Book may be divided into four Parts or Secti­ons. The five Chapters from the Beginning, con­tain the Prophecies which he made in the Time of Uzziah.—The Vision of the sixth Chapter hap­pened in Jotham's Reign; and the following Chap­ters from the seventh to the thirty fifth inclusive­ly, contain his Prophecies under the Reign of [Page 5] Ahaz.—And then follows an Account of Sennache­rib's Invasion, Hezekiah's Sickness & Recovery, Chap. 36, 37, 38. (that History being a Key to open several Passages in the foregoing Prophecies) with a brief Prediction of the Jews Captivity by the Babylonians, on Occasion of the King of Baby­lon's Ambassage to Hezekiah &c. in Chap. 39.—And the 40th Chap. and those that follow to the End of the Book, do not only concern the Jews Return from Babylon, and the Restoration and Establishment of their Ecclesiastical and Political State, but also the Call of the Gentiles, the King­dom of Jesus Christ, and flourishing State of the Church under his Government, and the Prophet describes the future Glories of the Church, with a Loftiness of Expression suitable to the Dignity of the Subject.

And not only in this last Section, but also in the preceeding Parts of this Book, the Prophet in fore­telling and describing sundry remarkable Events relating to the Jewish Nation, takes Occasion to set forth the several Advances of Christ's Kingdom in after-Times. And the glorious State of the Church towards the End of the World, when the Fulness of the Jews and Gentiles shall come into the Church, is evidently predicted in the former Part of Ch. 2. and in 6, 7, 8, 9. ℣. of the 11th Ch. and that inimitable Description of the new Face of Things, in Ch. 35. cannot with Propriety be ap­plied, in its utmost Latitude, to any other than the Golden Age of the Gospel, or Millennial State.

The Prophecies which foretell the Visibility and Universality of Christ's Church, accompanied with perfect Peace, Prosperity & Holiness, cannot with [Page 6] any Probability, be said to have as yet received their Accomplishment, as, neither have those Pre­dictions, which foreshew the flourishing State of the Jewish Church & Nation in the latter Times.

Moreover, 'tis to be observed, that under the Old Testament, the most considerable Persons and Transactions there mentioned, were typical, and prefigured the State of Things under the Messias. In the Characters given us in the Old Testament of Moses and Joshua, David and Solomon, Cyrus and Z [...]rubbabel, and others I might mention, they are plainly described as Figures of Christ, several Cir­cumstances of their Lives did foreshew the most remarkable Passages of his Life, & the Deliveran­ces some of them wrought for God's People, were Earnests of a greater Redemption to be accom­plished by the Messias: And from hence we may conclude, that there is a Resemblance or Corres­pondence between many of the Transactions men­tioned in the Old Testament, and those which should come to pass under the New; and conse­quently, that the Prophets when they spake of some Events near their own Times, probably had more distant Views, which might reach even to the latter Ages of the World. And it seems to have been a Maxim, in interpreting Prophecies, received among the Jews before Christ's Time, that whenever they observed an imperfect Completion of a Prophecy in the historical Event, which no way answered the lofty Expressions, and extensive Promises, which the natural Sense of the Text imported, then they supposed the Times of the Messiah to be ultimately intended, in whom all the Promises of God are Yea and Amen.

[Page 7] And among this kind of Prophecies, this thirty­second Chapter of Isaiah, is an eminent Example, especially the former Part of it, in particular the Verses of my Text, and the two following Verses—

My Text, in the primary Sense, is to be under­stood of Hezekiah, and the Princes or Magistrates under him. The Character of that excellent Prince, and the subordinate Rulers, is here exhi­bited; but there are several Expressions, ‘parti­cularly those in the 3d & 4th Verses, that relate to happier Times than Hezekiah ever lived to see, and therefore we may justly say, that the Reformation made by Hezekiah, was but a Sha­dow or Image of those greater Improvements in Grace and Holiness, which properly belong to the Gospel Times, under the Government of Christ, and the Assistance of his Spirit. And the Eyes of them that see, shall not be dim, and the Ears of them that hear, shall hearken—The Heart also of the Rash shall understand Knowlege, & the Tongue of the Stammerers shall be ready to speak plainly.’ God shall plentifully afford the Light of his Truth, and give them Grace to make a good Use of the Instructions he vouchsafes unto them. Those that are weak in Faith shall come to more perfect Degrees of Knowlege; and the most rude and illiterate, such as could not speak so as to be understood, shall discourse clearly & intelligibly of God and of their Duty;—the barbarous Nations being converted to Christ, shall give Praises to God in their several Languages."^*

And indeed my Text and Context have never yet been fulfilled, since the Coming of Christ, in [Page 8] their most sublime Sense, nor shall be, until the Millennial State advances, when the Kingdoms of this World shall become the Kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ. And therefore there is not only a primary but a secondary Sense of the Pro­phet to be attended: To which may be added, with Propriety, an accommodated Sense, the particu­lar Illustration whereof will comprise all I propose to offer from my Text on this great Occasion.

I. This Prophecy of a King to Reign in Righ­teousness, and Princes to Rule in Judgment, is primarily applicable to King Hezekiah, and the Prime Ministers of State under him, and was fulfilled in Him and Them.

The first King of Israel by God's Permission and Designation was Saul. Till this Time, God had governed the Nation by Judges, whom He raised up, & extraordinarily inspired, when he saw Occasion. He reserved to himself the sole Power of establishing Laws, appointing Magistrates, and making War.—Josephus (in his Book against Apion) makes the Government of the Israelites before they had a King different from all other, which he calls by a new Name ΘΕΟΚΡΑΤΙΑ (a Greek Word made by him to express the same) Theocracy, that is, the Government of God. For God exercised the supreme Authority among them by his ex­press Command.

On Occasion of the bad Conduct of Samuel's Sons (their taking Bribes & perverting Judgment) the Elders of Israel came to Samuel, and demand­ed a King to be set over them, like the other Na­tions, 1 Sam. Ch. 8. ver. 1,—4. God is offended [Page 9] at it as an interpretative throwing off his Autho­rity, who was their King, but tells Samuel to con­sent to their Demand, ℣. 7. at the same Time, ordering him to shew them the Manner of the King that should reign over them, ℣. 9. (which Samuel faithfully relates to the Elders, ℣. 11—17.) that they might know what Kind of Government they chose in Stead of God's. Samuel from God gives them a Description of a most arbitrary and tyrannical Government, such as the Kings of the Nations had acquired, for they desired such a King as their Neighbours had, who were all under the absolute Dominion of their Princes, which is called by Aristotle (Politic. Lib. 5.) a Despotick Government.

The People of Israel had hitherto lived under Governours, raised up by Divine Instinct, who had exacted no Tribute from them, nor put them to any Charges. With which Government they being not contented, but desiring to have a King like other Nations, that should live in Pomp and Splendor, and keep standing Forces about him, to be ready to resist any Invasion: Samuel informs them, what it was they desired, that they might consider, when they understood it, whether they would persist in their Choice: If they would have a King magnificently attended, then he tells them, the King will take their Sons, and put them in his Chariots, &c. ℣. 11. If they would have him keep up constant Forces, then he must appoint them for Colonels and Captains, and employ those in his Wars, who were wont to follow their Fa­mily-Business, ver. 12. And since after the Man­ner of other Kings, he must keep a stately Court, [Page 10] they must be content that their Daughters, (ver. 13.) should serve in several Offices; which the King would think below the Dignity of his Wives and Daughters. Many Ministers also in several Employments both in War & Peace, must have Salaries to support them, which must be paid out of their Fields and Vineyards, ver. 14. For which Services, he tells them, the King will expect the Tenth of all belonging to them, that he may main­tain his Royal Expences, ver. 15, 16, 17. In one Word, if they will have a King, he must be main­tained, after a royal Manner, out of their Estates.^*

Far be it from us to suppose, that Samuel here speaks of a just and honest Right of Kings to do these Things, for their Right is quite otherwise described in that Part of Moses's Law, which con­cerns the King's Duty, in Deut Ch. 17. ver. 18, 19, 20. Moses there commands, that the King, when he sat on the Throne, should write him a Copy of the Law in a Book from the Original, or authen­tick Copy in the Sanctuary, under the Custody of the Priests, and that he should diligently study it, and learn his Duty therefrom, that he might be preserved in the true Religion, and be acquainted with his whole Duty, and perform it accordingly: not imagining himself to be above all Laws, nor slighting his Subjects, but taking due Care to pro­mote their Happiness.

God had given Israel in the Wilderness, a Body of Moral Political and Ecclesiastical Laws, when he formed them into a National Common-Wealth and Church, or Political and Ecclesiastical State, and their Kings are by Moses enjoined to govern [Page 11] themselves and their People by these standing [...]aws.

From what is said in the latter Part of the 20th Ver. (To the End that he, that is, the King may pro­ [...]ong his Days in his Kingdom, he and his Children in the midst of Israel) it appears that God intended to establish a successive Right in that Family, to which he gave the Kingdom, if they continued in a constant Observation of his Laws.

Saul their first King, disobeyed God, and disre­garded his Laws, and therefore the Kingdom was taken from his Family, and given to David, who was a strict Observer of the Divine Laws (except in the Matter of Uriah, which Sin on his Repen­tance, God pardoned) and the Kingdom was trans­mitted to his Son Solomon. He, tho' highly fa­voured of God, yet in sundry Instances rebelled against him, and trampled on his Laws. For he not only gave himself up to the wanton Embra­ces of many Women, but of many strange Women, such as were not Israelites by Nation or Profession, but of idolatrous Nations, with whom the Lord had expresly prohibited Israel in general, but more especially their Kings, to contract Marriage; and by their Allurements, he was seduced to worship filthy and abominable Idols of the Neighbour Nations. And in Punishment of his Idolatry and Apostacy, God rent away ten Tribes from his Son Rehoboam, & gave them to his Servant Jeroboam, the first Founder of the new & distinct Kingdom of Israel. God says, Solomon's Son shall have one Tribe, for his Servant David's sake, and Jerusalem's sake, which he had chosen. 1 Kin. Ch. 11. 31, 32.—That David my Servant may have a Light always before [Page 12] me in Jerusalem—ver. 36. By a Light, is meant a Suc­cession of Kings. Asa & Jehosaphat only of all the Kings of Judah from Solomon to Hezekiah, had the Character of pious and virtuous Kings, and tho' God in strict Justice might have rent the whole Kingdom from the Family of David, when they turned aside from God & Obedience to his Laws, yet for his Oath's sake to David, he continued the Kingdom in his Family, and to his Posterity, and thereby Jerusalem was preserved, and conti­nued the Place of Worship, according to the Di­vine Institution.

King Ahaz, the Father of Hezekiah, was a very impious Prince, yet when the King of Israel and the King of Syria, were in a Confederacy to cut off the Royal Family of Judah, God remembred his ancient Promises to David, and sent Isaiah to assure him, that their evil Counsel should not stand, or come to pass. See Isai. Ch. 7. ver. 3—7. The House of David was exceedingly moved at that Time, ver. 2. God offers Ahaz a Sign (which he himself should chuse) of the Truth of what he had declared and promised, ver. 10, 11. but Ahaz refused to ask a Sign, because he was in Despair, and disbelieved God's Word, ver. 12. Isaiah there­upon directs his Speech to the Royal Family in general, to comfort them under dismal despond­ing Apprehensions, and assures them that God's Promises to the Family of David, should never fail, but should have their full and final Comple­tion in the Messias, who should be born of a Vir­gin, ver. 13, 14. This Prophecy, concerning a Virgin's conceiving and bringing forth the Ema­nuel, (God with us) was now delivered to raise [Page 13] and support the drooping Spirits of the House of David, who seeing so great a Force armed a­gainst them, were under terrible Apprehensions of their utter Extirpation near at Hand, from which this Prediction did relieve them, by giving Assurance, that their House should stand and con­tinue, 'till this promised Emanuel should be born of their Race.

Ahaz, instead of being reformed by the Mercy of God in breaking the Confederacy of the two Kings, became more wicked than he was before, for he cleaved to the worst Abominations of the heathen Nations round about him. See 2 Chron. Ch. 28. ver. 2, 3, 4. And therefore God for his Punishment, brought upon him again the two confederated Kings, from whom he had delivered him the former Year, who made terrible Havock and Destruction. See ver. 5, 6. and soon after the Land was invaded by the Edomites and Phi­listines, and exposed to their Ravages. After all this he continued hardened in his Impiety, and would not seek to God, nor turn from his wicked Ways, but putting his Confidence in Man (and not in God) engaged the King of Assyria, by a sacrilegious Present, to come for his Assistance, who rather distressed than helped him.

After this, he gave himself up to Idolatry, and worshipped the Gods of the Syrians, as well as of the other Nations, and filled Jerusalem and Ju­dah with Idols, and their Altars.

And upon the whole it is evident that the Reign of Ahaz was a most calamitous Time, and the People of Judah and Jerusalem were in an evil State, and all Things considered, a more dismal [Page 14] Scene was open'd than ever before. He who apostatized from God, and bid open Defiance to his sacred Institutions, 'tis easy to suppose, did con­duct in Violation of the political or civil Laws, as well as the Moral and Ecclesiastical.—He reign­ed in Unrighteousness, & the Princes or Magistrates under him, by his Command, or wicked Example, ruled with Injustice. In Addition to the Cala­mities of War and Devastation from without by foreign Armies, Tyranny and Oppression were triumphant within.

Now in this gloomy and tempestuous Time, the Prophecy of my Text and Context is published by Isaiah, in the Name of the Lord, to support the sinking Spirits of his People, to raise in them a comfortable Hope, and to give them a joyful Prospect of a Time soon to come, when God would graciously give them a religious and righ­teous King and good Magistrates, under whose wise and just and mild Administration of Govern­ment, they should have some Respite, and be pro­tected and saved from the terrible Evils that hi­therto had come upon them, and almost over­whelmed them.

This Prediction is introduced with a Word de­manding Attention to what should be spoken, as a Matter of great Importance for the People to hear and understand—Behold—a King shall reign in Righteousness, and Princes shall rule in Judgment—"Under the Government of so good a King as Hezekiah, inferiour Princes and Magistrates shall execute their Office with Integrity and Faithful­ness."^†

[Page 15] Righteousness and Judgment are often used in Scripture the one for the other, and to express the same Thing, and yet we may suppose that sometimes they express Ideas distinct or some­what different.

The 72d Psalm Beginning may be considered as a parallel Place with my Text—Give the King thy Judgments, and thy Righteousness to the King's Son, ver. 1. As if David had said, "O God, bestow upon Solomon (who now sits upon my Throne) such a right Judgment in all Things, and such Up­rightness and Integrity of Heart, that he may go­vern thy People according to thy Laws, and tem­pering Justice with Mercy, may be a worthy Successor of me." He shall judge thy People with Righteousness, and thy People with Judgment, ver. 2. q. d. "He needs thy special Guidance & Assistance, by which he may be able to administer all Affairs with such impartial Justice and Clemency, that his poorest Subjects may be as dear to him, as they are to Thee; and recover their Rights, or be pre­served in them, from the Power of those who would oppress them."^‡

It follows in the second Verse of my Text, And a Man shall be as an hiding Place from the Wind, and a Covert from the Tempest, as Rivers of Water in a dry Place, as the Shadow of a great Rock in a weary Land: That is, "This Man the Prince, the King, shall be a Refuge to us, when the Storms of Ca­lamities overtake us, or the Oppressions of our E­nemies, like excessive Heat, do scorch and consume us."^* A like metaphorical Expression we have in Isai. 25. 4. directed to God the great King— [Page 16] For thou hast been—a Refuge from the Storm, a Shadow from the Heat, when the Blast of the terrible Ones is as a Storm against the Wall." Which may be apply'd to the Protection and Deliverance which God vouchsafed to the Jews from Sennacherib and his Army.

"The Prophet compares the Oppressions of those Strangers & Infidels to an excessive Drought which parched up every Thing, & ver. 5. He says, God will over-shadow his People, and protect them 'till this Tyranny be overpast." A like man­ner of Expression we have in Ch. 4. 6. And there shall be a Tabernacle for a Shadow in the Day-Time from the Heat, and for a Place of Refuge, and for a Covert from Storm and from Rain. That is, God will protect his People, defend and secure them from Calamities, Oppressions and afflicting Evils.

When Hezekiah set on the Throne, he reform­ed the Abuses and Evils that had sprung up and flourished in the Reign of his Father: And where­as Shebna, who had not a good Character, was Prime Minister of State in the Reign of Ahaz, this King removed him, and put Eliakim, in his Place. Compare Isai. 22. 15. with Ch. 36. 3. This Elia­kim was a Father to the Inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the House of Judah, i.e. had a tender Care of those who were under his Government, Ch. 22. ver. 20, 21.—He was a Prince that ruled in Judgment.

The King began his Reign with the Reforma­tion of Religion; he opened the House of God, and restored the true Worship of God, according to the Divine Law; he ordered the Priests and Levites to attend their Duty at the Temple. He caused his Father's idolatrous Altar to be remov­ed, [Page 17] and restored the Lord's Altar to it's Place, and purged the Temple of all other Pollutions, with which it had been prophaned.—The House of God being sanctified, the King, the Rulers and great Men of his Kingdom went thither, with the Peo­ple, and offered Sacrifices of Atonement & Peace-Offerings. And the Service of God was fully restored, as it had been performed in the purest Times.

And the King called the People together from all Parts of the Land, to solemnize the Passover, at which there was a very great Congregation—and was the greatest Passover that had been kept for many Generations past:—and when this So­lemnity was ended, by the Command and under the Direction of the King, the People went out into all the Coasts of Judah and Benjamin, and brake the Images in Pieces, and cut down the Groves, and threw down the high Places and the Altars, and utterly destroyed all the Monuments of Idolatry, which were found in Jerusalem & Judea, and the Coast thereof; and those of the other Tribes, on their return home, did the same in all other Parts of the Land; and so the true Worship of God was universally restored. And even the brazen Serpent made by Moses in the Wilderness, was not spared; which had been (in the Times of Corruption and Apostacy) made an Object of idolatrous Worship.—Thus Hezekiah reigned in Righteousness, according to the Divine Law.

And not only was he a religious and righteous Prince, but he was a Father of his People, in pro­viding for their Defence against the Assyrian Army.

[Page 18] When Jerusalem was threatned with Invasion by Sennacherib, the King appeared in the Character of a couragious and magnanimous, as well as faithful Ruler. He made all manner of Preparations for the Defence of the City and Annoyance of the E­nemy, in Case of a Seige. He caused the People to be enroll'd and marshal'd, that were able for the War, and placed over them Captains of Experi­ence, to instruct them in all military Exercises, and to lead them forth against the Enemy. And above all these Preparations for Defence, he put his Trust in God, as appears by that excellent Speech [...] made to the military Officers, 2 Chron. 32. 7, 8. Be strong and couragious, be not afraid nor dismayed for the King of Assyria, nor for all his Multitude that is with him, for there be more with us than with him—with him is an Arm of Flesh, but with us is the Lord our God to help us, and to fight our Battles.—And 'tis said, The People rested themselves upon the Words of Hezekiah: i. e. relied upon what he said, as if it had been spoken to them by God himself. And God rewarded Hezekiah's Piety and his religious Regard to the Law of God in his Administration of Government, with a prosperous Reign, and a very signal Deliverance from the violent Attempts of the Assyrians; for when the Army was on a full March towards Jerusalem, with a Purpose to destroy the City & Inhabitants, God sent a terrible Destruction upon them, 2 Kin. 19. 35.

And upon the whole, 'tis evident, that this pious and righteous Prince, under God, was a hiding Place from the Wind, a Covert from the Storm of War, and Devastation thereof, as refreshing Waters to the thirsty, as a Shadow of Defence from the violent [Page 19] and scorching Heat; a Protector & Defender of his People from the destructive Evils, with which they were threatned.

And this King of Judah is exhibited as a Pat­tern of Piety and Justice, exerted for the Honour of God, and his Laws, and for the Safety & Felici­ty of the People under his Government: He is set forth as a Pattern, for the Imitation of all Christian Kings. Religion, in the first Place, ought to be the Concern of every Christian Prince. He that ruleth over Men, must rule in the Fear of God, 2 Sam. 23. 3. i. e. in the exact Observance of all the Divine Laws. And accordingly (as you have heard) Kings were enjoined to copy out the Law, and read therein all the Days of their Life, (Deut. 17. 19.) that they might have a Sense of Religion and Piety on their Hearts, and manifest it in their Practice. Hezekiah was eminent for Piety towards God, and a zealous Regard to his Laws and Worship, and therefore he reigned in Righteousness, and the Magistrates under Him, ruled in Judgment. His Eyes (as David's) were upon the faithful of the Land, to dwell with him. i. e. to be of his Council, and he chose them who were of a perfect Way, (i. e. honest & upright) to serve him in the Administration of Govern­ment. All good Kings are mindful of God and his sacred Laws, and they think themselves ob­liged to promote the religious Observance due thereunto.—It is the Province of Rulers to be Patrons of Religion, to be nursing Fathers of the Church. And God is pleased to shower down his Blessings upon pious Princes, and He makes them great Benefactors to the People. A People [Page 20] are safe and happy, by the Favour of Heaven, un­der Rulers who, above all Things, have a strict and zealous Regard to the Honour of God and Obedience to his sacred Institutions.

And now, having considered the primary Sense of my Text, in Application to King Hezekiah; it follows,

II. To shew, that there is also a secondary Sense of the Words to be attended, for the fuller Illustra­tion of them.

This Sense is very evident in a great many Prophecies of the Old Testament. It is called a secondary Sense, not as if it were less principally intended by the Prophets, but rather with Respect to the Time, because it is the last and ultimate Completion of their Predictions: Which is also called the mystical or figurative Sense, by which is meant a more remote, but a natural and necessary Signification, in Contradistinction to the literal or immediate Signification, which is a Type or Figure of the other. "All Types or Figures being to have a Respect to the Things figured; if we consider them as Figures, we speak at the same Time of that which they represent; so that which is said, has necessarily two proper and natural Senses; one that agrees to the Figure, and another to the Thing figured: Sometimes the Figure is more evidently spoken of than the Thing figured, but sometimes also such Words are purposely chosen, as agree better to the Thing figured than the Fi­gure, to shew that what is said is but a Figure, and ought not to be rested in. The Old Testa­ment is a Figure of the New, and all those Things which befell the Jews, were Figures of what­ever [Page 21] should happen to Jesus Christ, and his Dis­ciples."^†

The Apostle Paul thus expresses himself, in 1 Cor. 10. 11. Now all these Things happened un­to them for Examples, or Types or Figures ( [...]) according to the Greek, speaking of Israel's being under the Cloud, and passing thro' the Sea &c. and their eating the Manna and drinking Water out of the Rock; all which were Types or Figures of Gospel spiritual Blessings. See ver. 1—4.

"But tho' the chief Persons, and principal E­vents of the old Testament are Figures, yet some are more evidently such, and others more obscure­ly; some are written only as Histories, and left to be interpreted, and others are written so that we may plainly see they are but Figures, and their Relation naturally and necessarily carries the Mind to something more lofty: Such are many of the Prophecies of the old Testament con­cerning Jesus Christ, and his Church: They are capable of two Senses, that of the Figure, and that of the Thing figured; this latter is not an arbi­trary, but a proper and necessary Sense, because the Words themselves shew that the Design of the Writer was to represent by a Figure some­thing more sublime. As for Example, when the Kingdom of David, and the Marriage of Solomon is spoken of in such lofty and magnificent Terms, tis visible, the Writer intended to speak of some­thing more sublime; i. e. of the Kingdom of Christ, and his Union with the Church, to which what he says of the Kingdom of David, and the [Page 22] Marriage of Solomon, much more naturally a­grees."^†

And of this Kind is the Prophecy of my Text and Context, which tho' primarily relating to He­zekiah, and the Jewish Church and State, yet se­condarily relates to Jesus Christ, of whom that King was a Type; and tho' it might have, and hitherto has had a Fulfilment by several Steps and Degrees, since the Times of the Gospel commen­ced, (as I shall shew under the third general Head, when I shall consider this Prophecy by Way of Accommodation) yet as I observed in my Intro­duction, this Prediction has never yet been ful­filled since the Coming of Christ in its ultimate and most sublime Sense, nor shall be, till the Mil­lennial Period arrives. And therefore I consider this Prophecy as typical of that happy State of the Church and World in the latter Days. And in the just Latitude of its secondary or mystical Sense—1. Ahaz was a Type or Figure of Anti­christ, that apostatised from the true Worship of the true God to Idolatry &c.—2. Hezekiah was a Type of Christ in one of the last glorious Displays of his kingly Power and Office, in a thoro' Refor­mation of the Church, and cleansing the Christian Sanctuary from all Antichristianism. And 3. Se­nacherib with his Assyrian Army, was a Type of Gog and Magog, that shall arise at the End of the Millennium & compass the Camp of the Saints or New Jerusalem.

(1.) Ahaz was a Type or Figure of Antichrist that apostatized from the true Worship of the true God to Idolatry & Idolatrous Worship.—'Tis said [Page 23] Ahaz made molten Images for Baalim, 2 Chron. 28. 2. which was a general Name of the Gods of the Nati­ons round about [...] in particular, 'tis said, ver. 23. that he sacrific [...] [...] the Gods of Damascus, that is, the Syrian God which were called Baalim; and setting up Image-Worship, according to the Practice of the Nations, he sacrificed and burnt Incense in the high Places, ver. 4. i. e. unto his Idols. And suppressing the Worship of God ac­cording to his Law, by shutting up the Temple, he took Care the People of Judah should not go up to Jerusalem, by erecting high Places in every City, wherein to perform divine Worship and Service to Baalim, ver. 24, 25. These Baalim call'd by the Greek Philosophers and Poets Daemons ( [...]) were an inferior Kind of deify'd Powers, as Mediators between the sovereign Gods and mortal Man; and these Baalim or Daemons were the Souls of Men (Kings, Heroes & others) deify'd or canonized for Gods after their Death. This appears from Hes [...]od, Plato, and others.

These deceased Men thus turned into Gods had the Name of Baalim from Bell or Baal, the first King of Babel, after Nimrod, or rather Nimrod himself,^* who is supposed to be the first Man who was deify'd or reputed as a God after Death, and accordingly worshipped.—And afterwards many other deceased Heroes & Kings were added and put among the Number of the Gods.—Baal, whose Worship Jezebel of Tyre, brought into Israel, was a deify'd Phenician King of that Name. This Order of Daemons had Place in the Religion of the ancient Romans, who called them Penates, Lares, and Dii Manes. ^† And when [Page 24] they canonized their deceased Emperors, (which began at the Death of Augustus) they called them Divi, that is, Gods of a second Rank.—This was the Doctrine of Baalim, a middle Sort of divine Powers; their Office was to be Mediators or A­gents between the sovereign Gods and Men, and the Way of worshipping them, was by consecra­ting Images, in which to have and retain the Presence of these Daemons at their Devotions. This Worship of Baalim or Daemons was bro't into Judah & Jerusalem by King Ahaz, as it was b [...]o't into Israel 200 Years before by Ahab & Jezebel. See 1 Kin. Ch. 16. 30, 31, 32.

And now let us see, how the Pagan Doctrine of Baalim and the Worship thereof is imitated by the Romish Church.

The great Apostacy of the Christian Church began in departing from the Faith, and giving heed to seducing Spirits and Doctrines of Devils, (Gr. [...]) or Daemons, which is foretold by St. Paul, 1 Tim. 4. 1.

As the Reign of Antichrist began in Boniface the Third, Bp of Rome, whom, (with his Successors) Phocas, Emperor of Constantinople, made Supreme Head of the Church, and universal Bishop over all Churches whatsoever, A.D. 606, so his immedi­ate Successor Boniface the 4th, in two or three Years after, by Leave from Phocas, opened the Pantheon at Rome, i. e. the Temple of Cybele, and all the Gods, and instead of the Pagan Deities, commanded the Virgin Mary, and all Saints and Martyrs, to be worshipped in that Temple, and consecrated it for that Purpose.^‖

[Page 25] The Heathens generally worshipped one su­preme God, but with him they set up other in­ferior Gods, created Deities, whom they stiled Dae­mons or Heroes; these were subordinate Divini­ties, Mediators & Intercessors with the supreme God. This was the Worship of Baalim, which Ahaz introduced into his Kingdom, in his great Apostacy from the God of Israel, and his true Worship.

So it is in the Church of Rome, and this was the great Apostacy of the Christian Church, when from being the Spouse of Christ, she was turned into a Harlot, being guilty of spiritual Adultery, even as Israel & Judah. See Hos. Ch. 2. ver. 2, 4, 5. Tho' the Papists acknowledge the One true God, yet they have introduced Angels and Saints, as the Objects of Worship, to whom they pray, and before whom they prostrate themselves, and pay religious Adoration, which is correspondent to the Daemon-Worship of the Pagans.—It is worthy of Observation, that when Ahaz caused an Ido­latrous Altar (in Form of Baalim's Altar which he saw at Damascus) to be made and set up in the Place of the Altar of the Lord in the Temple, which he therefore caused to be removed. I say, when Ahaz did this, at the same Time he said to Urijah, that the Brazen Altar (i.e. the Altar of the Lord) should be for him to enquire by, 2 King. 16. 15. Tho' he made a solemn Injunction that all the public Sacrifices of what Sort soever they were, whether made by himself, or by the People, should be constantly offered upon his Altar, which he calls the great Altar, (because it was much bigger than the Altar of God) ver. 15. yet, he would [Page 26] not have it thought, that he intended wholly to lay aside the Altar made by Solomon, but rather to do it great Honour, by reserving it for his private Use, when he pleased to enquire of God, or at least he pretended some Regard to it, tho' he had de­graded it.^*

And this is the Language and Practice of An­tichrist; for the Pope of Rome causes Shrines and Altars to be made and set up for the Virgin Mary and the Saints, the Christian, or rather Antichristian Baalim, and orders solemn and divine Adoration and Worship to be given unto them; and at the same Time pretends to have a religious Venera­tion for God and the Lord Jesus Christ; though hereby Christ is excluded his Office, as the one only Mediator between God and Man.—So the true Christian Altar is removed, and the refined Altar of Baalim, with a Christian Name is put in its Place. And as Ahaz in Conformity to the Pa­gans, worshipped the Syrian Gods in & by Images and Statues or Idols, accounting them as Represen­tations and Symbols of the Gods to whom divine Worship was paid, (for neither He nor the wiser Heathens tho't these Images to be Gods, yet the worshipping them, and the Gods in and by them is true Idolatry)—So the Papists, who make and set up Images of God and Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary and the Saints, and do not take these Images to be Gods, but only Representations of them, and erected to their Honour, are nevertheless justly charged with Idolatry, because they fall down be­fore them, and pay religious Worship unto them. And thus it appears, that the Apostacy of Ahaz [Page 27] from the true Worship of God to Idolatry, and the Worship of Baalim, was a Figure or Type of the great Apostacy of the Christian Church to Antichristianism.

2. Hezekiah was a Type of Christ in one of the last and glorious Displays of his Regal Power and Office, when he shall throughly cleanse the Christian Church from all Antichristian Idolatries and Impurities.

"Jesus Christ, the true and eternal God, has an essential Kingdom, co-eternal with himself, and inseparable from his Being. And He has a King­dom, and is King, as God-Man, and Media­tor between God and Man, and the Church is more peculiarly his Kingdom, as consisting of that Part of the World which owns his Authority, makes a visible Profession of Fealty to him, and Submission to his Laws: And as for the other Parts of the World, they are all of Right his Sub­jects, by Virtue of that universal regal Authority where with God the Father hath invested him, but in Fact are Slaves to the Prince of Darkness, whose Dominion in the World is no other than a Usurpation on the Kingdom of Christ.—But the Church is that Part of the World, that hath thrown off the Yoke of this Usurper, and by a solemn Profession, surrendered up it self to the Authority of Christ its rightful Lord and Sovereign: and hence the Members of the Church are said to be translated out of the Kingdom of Darkness, into the Kingdom of the Son of God. See Col. 1. 13." And this Church or visible Kingdom of Christ may be thus defined:—‘It is one universal So­ciety of all Christian People incorporated by the [Page 28] New Covenant in Baptism under Jesus Christ its Supreme Head, and distributed under lawful Governors & Pastors into particular Churches, holding Communion with each other in all the Essentials of Christian Faith and Worship and Discipline.’ ^‡

‘The visible Body or Church of Jesus Christ on Earth, comprehends all the Professors of his Name throughout the whole World, who retain the Purity of the Faith and the Unity of the Spirit in the Bond of Love.’ ^†

Now for this visible Church or Kingdom on Earth, and the Government thereof, Christ the King has prescribed Laws, first by himself perso­nally, and afterwards by his Apostles under the Inspiration of his Spirit, and as King over his Church, he defends it against the Attempts of its Enemies.—"And for this End, He appoints Kings and Governors the Nursing Fathers of his Church, as was anciently predicted, Isai. 49. v. 23. who in Analogy to that Name are to protect it, in the Profession and Exercise of the true Religion, to secure its Peace and good Order by wholesome Laws, to chasten and correct its irregular Mem­bers, and to make proper Provision for the De­cency of its Worship, and the Maintenance of its Ministers, or spiritual Pastors. These are also of his Appointment (as King of his Church) to preach his Gospel, to administer his holy Sacra­ments, to offer up the public Prayers of Christian Congregations, and to perform all other Acts and Offices in the Church, according to the Gospel Institution."

[Page 29] Jesus Christ has had such a Kingdom on Earth, since his Ascension into Heaven, but hitherto his visible Kingdom has not had a large Spread upon the Earth.—"The Infidel Part of the World is very vast and large—The greatest Kingdoms of the Earth are Tartary, India, China, Persia and Turkey, which are Strangers to the Religion of Je­sus, except a small Number in Turkey.—If we di­vide the World into six Parts, we shall find that five of them know not Christ, but are either the ido­latrous Pagans (which are the greatest Number) or Jews or Mahometans; and of the remaining sixth Part, Popery hath spread it self thro' the most flourishing Kingdoms of Europe, and has got Footing in Asia and Africa, and America; and among the Churches which disown Popery, some are grosly ignorant, erroneous and super­stitious, as the Churches of Muscovy, Abyssnia (or Upper-Ethiopia) and those called the Greek Churches, both in Asia and Europe; so that they hardly deserve the Name of Christian Churches"—Not to speak of the Ignorance, Infidelity, He­resy, & Immorality that seems to cover the Pro­testant Churches: So that the true Church of Christ is at this Day (as it has been in preceed­ing Times) a little Flock.—But if we look into the Prophecies of the Old Testament, we shall find they speak of the vast Extent of Christ's visible Kingdom on Earth, and seeing those Prophecies have never yet been accomplished, we must con­clude that there is a Time yet to come, before the Consummation of all Things, wherein our Saviour will once more display the glorious Banner of his Cross, and like a mighty Man of War, march on [Page 30] conquering and to conquer, 'till he has compleat­ed his Victory over all the Powers of the Earth, and brought all the World into a State of Sub­jection and Obedience to him and his Gospel: When the Kingdoms of the World shall become the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ.

There are a great Number of Texts in Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and the minor Prophets, which speak of this universal Kingdom of the Messias. I shall name only one or two. 'Tis said in Dan. Ch. 2. 34, 35. that the Stone cut out of the Mountain without Hands, (by which all agree the Kingdom of Christ is signified) should become a great Mountain, and fill the whole Earth. And in Zech. 14. 9. 'tis said, the Lord shall be King over all the Earth. But the most signal and renowned Place of Scripture, concerning the future glorious State of the Christian Church on Earth, is in the New-Testament: Rev. Ch. 20. begin. where is (in Vi­sion) expresly foretold the Binding of Satan a thou­sand Years, and the Saints living and reigning with Christ a thousand Years.

That this happy Period is not past, we may sa­tisfy our selves, by considering, that from the Be­ginning of Gospel Times, to this Day, there ne­ver has been a thousand Years that deserve the Name, or answer the Characters of this blessed Millennium.

This last State of the Church and the World is expressed by new Heavens and a new Earth wherein dwelleth Righteousness, 2 Pet. 3. 13. which (says the Apostle Peter,) we look for according to his Promise, evidently referring to the Prophet Isaiah, for this is his Style in expressing the glori­ous [Page 31] Times of the Gospel; For behold (says God) I create new Heavens and a new Earth, Ch. 65. 17. And again, Ch. 66. 22.—The new Heavens and the new Earth which I will make—And from him (not only Peter) but the Apostle John borrows and uses the same Metaphor of a new Heaven and a new Earth, (Rev. 21. 1.) in describing the Millennium mentioned in the Beginning of the preceeding Chapter.

This cannot be meant of the Church triumphant and State of the blessed in Heaven; for the new Heavens and the new Earth, ver. 1. are the same with the holy City, the new Jerusalem, ver. 2. into which the Kings of the Earth bring their Glory and Honour, ver. 24. i. e. the gentile Kings being converted to Christianity, shall come with all their honourable Retinue, to submit to the Sceptre of Jesus, to own themselves his Subjects, and ambitious to be Members of this glorious Church on Earth.

It is very evident, and I suppose universally a­greed, that Jerusalem the Metropolis of Judea, was a Type of the Christian visible Church (as the Temple and Sacrifices and other ceremonial Services thereof, were a Type of the pure Gospel Service and Worship) and David under this Fi­gure, celebrates the Beauty and Glory of the Gospel-Church in the latter Days, Psal. 48. ver. 1, 2.—The City of our God—beautiful for Situation, the Joy of the whole Earth, is Mount Sion, the City of the great King—i.e. the Christian Church in her vi­sible and glorious State, the City of Christ the great King. And in the Book of Ezekiel, from Chap. 40th to the End of the Book, we have a Des­cription [Page 32] of the Millennial State of the Gospel­Church, represented under the Figure of the City of Jerusalem and the Temple.

The Prophet was in Vision brought into the Land of Israel, and was set upon a very high Moun­tain, by which was the Frame of a City on the South, i.e. on the South-Side of Mount Sion. He saw to the South ward of him, a Representation of the City and Temple standing upon an Eminence, And John's Vision of the new Jerusalem (tho' it is to be observed there was no Temple there) is form'd upon the Plan of Ezekiel's Vision. See Rev. 21. 10, 11. And he carried me away in the Spi­rit to a great and high Mountain, and shewed me that great City, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of Hea­ven from God, having the Glory of God. Now to prepare for this blessed State, the Lord Jesus will come a second Time, (not personally, but by his Spirit) with his Fan in his Hand, and will thro'ly purge the Floor of his visible Church from all the Chaff of Superstition, and Idolatry, Schism & Heresy, Irreligion & Immorality, with which it is almost totally covered. And he shall be as a Refiner and Purifier of Silver, and he shall purify the Sons of Levi (the Ministers of the Gospel) and purge them as Gold and Silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an Offering in Righteousness. See Mal. 3. 3. At this Time, that most corrupt Faction of Christians, or rather most wicked Cabal of Antichristians (called in Scripture the mystical Babylon & Antichrist) shall be utterly broken, and the Kings & Princes of the Nations (the ten Horns) who had before been Partakers with the Romish Church in its soul Impostures and Corruptions, will be turned [Page 33] to hate the antichristian Whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her Flesh, and burn her with Fire, Rev. 17. 16.

This is the happy Time when Antichrist's Reign, i.e. domineering persecuting Power shall come to an End, which (as it began A.D. 606, and must continue 1260 Years) is at 108 Years Distance from the present Time. Then shall begin the cleansing of the Sanctuary predicted and in Type foreshewed in Daniel, Ch. 8. Tho' it may take up half a Century or more for the thorough purging the Church from all antichristian Impurities.

To prepare for the pouring out the 5th Vial on the Seat of the Roman Beast: The 4th Vial shall be poured out on the Sun: That is, the grand Supports of the Papacy shall be removed, the House of Austria, and the House of Bourbon—These Powers of Europe shall be broken and their Em­pires overturned. After the Ruin of Antichrist, follows the Downfall of the Turkish Empire, fore­shewed by the pouring out the sixth Vial on the great River Euphrates (Rev. 16. 12.) i. e. the People inhabiting there, the Turks who dwell in that Part of the World—and the Water thereof was dried up, i. e. the Turkish Empire is overturned. It follows,—that the Way of the Kings of the East might be prepared. Some great Potentates of the eastern Nations shall come over to the Christian Church, and the Gospel shall be preached to those Nations. The 6th Vial shall demolish the Tur­kish and Persian Empires, and destroy the Maho­metan Religion, in which Empires it now flou­rishes. This will prepare the Way for gospe­lizing all the Nations of the East.—The 7th Vial [Page 34] poured into the Air is the immediate Fore-runner of the Millenium, when a great Voice came out of the Temple of Heaven from the Throne, saying, it is done, ver. 17.

Then the Gospel shall be preached to all the Nations of the Earth.—The Jews shall be con­verted to Christ and gathered in, from all their Dispersions, and the Fulness of the Gentiles shall come in with the Jews to the Christian Church. See Rom. 11. 25.—This is the Time spoken of by the Prophet Isaiah (Chap. 11. 9.) when the Earth shall be full of the Knowledge of the Lord, as the Waters cover the Sea. And when every thing that offends is taken out of the Way, the Earth shall be blessed with an universal Peace, which is clearly predicted by the evangelical Prophet, Isai. Chap. 2. 4. Nation shall not lift up Sword against Nation, neither shall they learn War any more: Which peaceful State is also foretold in many other Places of the Prophets. Universal Righteousness and Ho­liness shall be an Attendant of this last Dispensa­tion—Thy People shall be all righteous, says the Prophet, Isai. 60. 21. And they shall not defile them­selves any more with their detestable Things, Ezek. 37. 23. Religion shall appear in it's native Purity, the Influence of the holy Spirit on Men's Hearts, shall be conspicuous in their Lives—then in a more eminent Manner, than ever before the blessed Jesus shall be exalted and glorifyed. "In these blessed Days there shall be no new Religion, but new Hearts—Religion and Piety shall be in high Reputation, Goodness and Holiness shall be esteemed most honourable, all Perfidiousness and Falshood shall cease and disappear—Truth, Sin­cerity, [Page 35] Integrity and Open-Heartedness shall uni­versally prevail—All sinister and base Designs, all unworthy Aims and vicious Ends shall be laid aside, and the Glory of God and the Honour of Christ shall have a mighty and most prevailing Influence in the Hearts and Lives of Men.

This shall be the latter End of Christ's Kingdom on Earth. And this happy State of Things shall be enlivened and enlightned, tho' not with Christ's personal Presence, yet with his Presence by the Influence of his Spirit, in an high and very un­common Measure; for so we read in the apoca­lyptic Vision, that upon the new Jerusalem's com­ing down from Heaven, a great Voice was heard saying, Behold the Tabernacle of God is with Men, and He will dwell with them; and they shall be his People, and God himself shall be with them and be their God."—By the powerful Aids of Heaven, Men shall be enabled to subdue their Lusts, to conquer their Vices, and with Exactness to con­form their Lives to the Rules of the Gospel.

"And as to the outward Means and Instru­ments, God will make Use of to bring about this great Work on Earth, 'tis most reasonable to sup­pose it shall be effected by active and zealous Go­vernors. Persons of that Character have been here­tofore raised up, in order to great Revolutions and Alterations in Church and State. This is e­vident in Cyrus and Constantine the first Christian Emperor, and Charles the great, the Founder of the German Empire, in former Times: And in the Electors of Saxony first John and then Maurice at Luther's Reformation in Germany. And at the Beginning of the Reformation in England, what [Page 36] great and wonderful Things did the resolute and courageous King Henry 8th bring to pass?—Much more may be done in England & Europe, and all the World over▪ by God's inspiring the Hearts of some Christian Kings and Princes with Valour and Resolution, especially by adding Vir­tue and Holiness to their Courage, by touching their Hearts with a real Sense of Religion. Kings and Governors thus qualified, can under God, accomplish wonderful Things. Impious and de­bauched Rulers are the greatest Mischiefs & Plagues of the Earth; and accordingly it has been the Stratagem of Satan throughout all Ages to pro­cure such Magistrates as will abet and further his Design, i.e. who will patronize Irreligion & Vice, and if possible establish it by Law: this has been the Cause of that Deluge of Vice and Debauchery which has broke into and overspread Cities and Countries. But when God will vouchsafe to stem this mighty Torrent, he will set up some eminent Persons in high Places, who by their powerful Laws as so many Walls and Ramparts shall effectually stop its impetuous Course.^†" High Enthusiasts & Fanaticks make the Reign of Christ inconsistent with the Reign of Kings, and Rule of Princes. When Fifth-Monarchy-Men set up King Jesus, they pull down all other Kings—But they forget that in the same Place where it is said by the Prophet, Behold a King shall reign in Righteousness, meaning Christ and this Kingdom I am now discoursing of, he adds, and Princes shall Rule in Judgment. So speaks my Text: i.e. Kings and Potentates of the Nations, under Christ the great King.

[Page 37] The Monarchy of Christian Princes is not in­compatible with the Kingdom of Christ. "And so far are we from giving any Countenance to the Fifth Monarchy Enthusiasts and their Doctrine, that as we firmly believe, so we confidently aver, that the Kingdom of Jesus Christ in the Millennial State (of which I am now speaking) shall be set up and maintained by the Kings and Governours of the Earth; and I think we have good Ground for this, from Rev. 17. 16, 17. where we are ex­presly told, that those who formerly gave their Kingdom to the Beasts, shall afterwards hate the Whore, and make her desolate &c."

"And this great Work shall be also advanced by the Help of Gospel Ministers, whose Ability, Zeal and Faithfulness, are as requisite in this great Affair, as of the Civil Magistrate.—Ministers shall discharge their holy Function, according to the Christian Law, shall make all Men see, that they make the Honour of God and Christ, and saving Mens Souls, the grand Design of their Ministry. Magistrates and Ministers will go Hand in Hand towards accomplishing that great Work of reform­ing the Church and the World. Zerubbabel the Governour, and Jeshua the Priest, were joined in building the Temple, and in these happy Times to come there shall be no Disagreement between the State and the Church.—In former Times very great Things have been done for promoting Re­ligion and Virtue, by the hearty Concurrence of pious Magistrates & Ministers—When they have acted jointly for the Advancement of Christ's Kingdom, wonderful Effects were visible, as in the Times of those religious Emperors Constan­tine [Page 38] and Theodosius the elder. When Jesus Christ shall send such Princes and Leaders as Zerubbabel, and such Ministers of Religion as Jeshua, such Tea­chers and Scribes as Ezra, the Building of God's House will soon be finished.—When He appoints such publick-spirited, pious & zealous Governours as Nehemiah, the Walls of the new Jerusalem will soon be built up. Such great and noble Spirits being set on work, will by the divine Assistance easily bring the Work to Perfection. Then the Gospel will be compleatly established, Christiani­ty universally propagated, and evangelical Righ­teousness will every where prevail upon the Earth."

And the Reformation begun and brought to Perfection by Hezekiah, an eminent Type of Christ, in this glorious Display of his regal Power does most graphically set forth in Figure, this wonder­ful Reformation of the Church and of the World in the latter Days.

This pious King ordered the Priests to cleanse the Sanctuary from all its idolatrous Pollutions—restored the Altar of the Lord to its Place; re­moved and destroyed the idolatrous Altars, and all Monuments of Idolatry; resettled the Worship of God, according to the Law of Moses; renewed the usual Sacrifices, and caused the Passover to be kept with great Solemnity; resettled the Courses of the Priests and the Levites according to their Service; and in a Word, restored the ancient Worship in all its Order and Solemnity; a full Account of which we have in 2 Chron. Chapters 29. 30, 31. A most lively Emblem of what shall be done in the latter Times, when the Christian [Page 39] Church shall be restored to its pure State & Wor­ship, according to the Gospel.

It remains to shew,

3. That Sennacherib with his Assyrian Army, was a Type of Gog and Magog, that shall arise at the End of the Millennium, & compass the Camp of the Saints, or the new Jerusalem.

At the close of the Millennium, the World again degenerates, and in a short Time becomes very impious and wicked, by the Influence & Seducti­on of Satan, now comeforth from the bottomless Pit. At that Time, there shall be a woful Aposta­cy of a great Part of the World from Christianity to Antichristianism; Papism, Mahometism, Paga­nism and Devilism—There shall then arise a dead­ly Generation of Vipers, a cursed Increase of the most profligate Sinners, who having separated from the Church, will invade and endeavour to destroy it, and root out the Christian Religion from the Earth. An Account of this we have in Rev. Ch.20. ver. 7, 8, 9. when the thousand Years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his Prison; and he shall go out to deceive the Nations which are in the four Quarters of the Earth, Gog & Magog, to gather them together to Battle, the Number of whom is as the Sand of the Sea, and they went up on the Breadth of the Earth and compassed the Camp of the Saints about and the beloved City, i. e. the new Je­rusalem. 'Tis prophesied in Ezekiel, Ch. 38, 39. that a little before the Beginning of the Millen­nium (figuratively described in the following Chapters) Gog and Magog (i.e. the Turks) shall beset the Jews, at their Return from their Dispersions to Palestine, with all their Force & Cavalry, and this [Page 40] for their Destruction. And the dreadful Over­throw of these Enemies of the Jews is there also foreshewed. Soon after which that blessed State shall commence.

But that Gog and Magog is quite different from this in Rev. 20. Ch. For this Gog and Magog shall arise and invade the whole Christian Church, Jews and Gentiles at the End of the Millennium. But John in other Instances, forming his Vision on Ezekiel's Plan, as was noted before, so here, he takes from Ezekiel the Names of the last and most implaca­ble Enemies of the Church, the Apostates from the Christian Profession; and so great shall be their Number when gathered in an Army, that they shall (as it were) cover all the Earth, and shall lay close Siege to the beloved City; by which is meant the whole Church of Christ, the visible Body and Society of Believers, which shall at that Time re­main on Earth.

But observe the tragical Close of all—Fire came down from God out of Heaven, and devoured these Armies of Gog and Magog, ver. 9. All which is represented in Figure by Sennacherib's Army, and the Destruction thereof.

The Assyrian Army went up on the Breadth of the Land of Judea. The whole Host came up against the City, and begirt it with a close Siege, on Design to take and utterly destroy it, and the Inhabitants thereof. God had promised that the King of Assyria should not possess himself of the City, nor so much as shoot an Arrow into it. See 2 Kin. 19. 32. Isai. 37, 33. and so it came to pass. "In the very Night after the Army sat down be­fore Jerusalem (as the Jews say in Gemara Sanhe­drin) [Page 41] and were so weary, that they made no At­tempt upon the City; the Angel of God went out, & destroyed the whole Army. That is, as the Targum saith, (which is related after the same Manner in the Babylonish Talmud) the Word of the Lord (the Messias) sent Gabriel to do this Execution, who in the Passover-Night smote them with Lightning."^†

A very lively and illustrious Figure of the a­mazing Destruction of the last Enemies of the Church by Fire from Heaven, or Lightning. And upon the whole we see, that there is a Resemblance or Correspondence between many of the Trans­actions mentioned in the old Testament, and those which should come to pass under the new, and that the Prophets when they spake of some E­vents near their own Times, had more distinct Views, which might reach even to the latter Ages of the World.

And having considered and illustrated the se­condary or mystical Sense of our Text.

I proceed,

III. To consider and illustrate our Text by Way of Accommodation.—And the accom­modated Sense may with a Propriety be added to the primary and secondary Senses.

I have considered the secondary or mystical Sense of my Text, as the ultimate Completion of this Pro­phecy—But then we are to observe, that this Pre­diction (as many other of the old Testament) is not limited to one single Event, but may have different Views, and be capable of being fulfill'd by several Steps and Degrees.

[Page 42] "In the Interpretation of Prophecies, that La­titude must be allowed which is proper & fami­liar to divine Prophecies, that their Accomplish­ments may be both perpetual and punctual, for they resemble the Nature of their Author, to whom one Day is as a thousand Years, and a thousand Years as one Day.—And tho' the Fulness&Height of their Complement be many Times assigned to some certain Age or Period of Time, yet they have nevertheless certain Stairs or Scales of Ac­complishment throughout diverse Ages of the World."^* And the observing the Distinction between the different Times wherein the Prophe­cies relating to the Gospel State shall be fulfilled, facilitates our understanding the prophetical Wri­tings, and discovers to us a pleasing Harmony be­tween the Prophecies of the old and new Testa­ment, and the State of the Christian Church in the past Ages and Periods.

My Text understood by Way of Accommo­dation, is an Application thereof in Periods and Times of the Gospel, to Christian Kings & Em­perors, who (under Christ) reigned in Righteous­ness, and to Princes or chief Magistrates under them, who ruled in Judgment:—and were as an hiding Place from the Wind, and a Covert from the Tempest.

And for Illustration, I will name Christian Em­perors, Kings and Princes, who have reigned in Righteousness, or ruled in Judgment, who were a Refuge and hiding Place to the People of God from the Storms of Calamities, and the Violence and Oppression of its Enemies.

[Page 43] 1. Constantine the great, the first Christian Em­peror, was eminently a King raised up by God, to perform wonderful Things for Christ and his Church, and to Him may our Text be applied and accommodated with an Emphasis.

The Christian Church had been for above two Hundred Years assaulted and afflicted by the furious Storms, and scorching Heat of Persecuti­ons, raised by the Pagan Emperors, and prosecu­ted by the Governors of the Provinces. The ten Persecutions of the primitive Church are famous in Church History. The tenth and last, began un­der Dioclesian and Maximian A. D. 303, and con­tinued under some of their Successors, was the most furious of them all, as well as of the longest Duration. In this dismal Time, and most tem­pestuous State of the Church, God raised up Con­stantine to be a Protector of his Church, against the Outrage of its Enemies, a Deliverer from her Agonies and Terrors.

Constantine the Son of Constantius Chlorus (Em­peror of the western Provinces) & his Wife He­lena a British Lady, was born in Britain.—As the first Christian King in the World (Lucius) was a Briton, so was the first Christian Emperor. "O happy Britain (says Eumenius Rhetor in an Oration to Constantine) and blessed above all other Lands, which didst first behold Constantine Caesar—And in another Oration—"Your Father Constantius did free the British Provinces from Slavery, and you have enobled them by taking thence your Original."—"Britons do justly boast of Constantine their Country-man, one among a thousand and ten thousands, who quenched the Fire, and over­turned [Page 44] the Furnace of Persecution, and ensranchi­sed Christianity through the Roman Empire."

No wonder that Britain is ambitious of having such a Worthy born in her. This blessed Em­peror, marching with his Army from Gaul to Italy, for the Suppression of the wicked Usurper. and most execrable Tyrant Maxentius, and for the Deliverance of the Romans from his horrid Bar­barities & Debaucheries, as he was on his March, after Mid-day, had a wonderful Vision: He saw in the Heavens a Pillar of Light in Figure like a Cross, with an Inscription thereon (in Greek Let­ters EN TOU Ω NIKA) In this overcome; and the Night following, Jesus Christ appeared to him in his Sleep, and ordered him to make a Standard or Banner, like to that which appeared to him in the Heavens, and thereupon promised him Suc­cess, and Victory over his Enemies.

Constantine according to the divine Command, made a Standard, and put upon it the Sign of the Cross.—He gained an entire Victory over Max­entius, and put the Standard, as a Trophy in the middle of Rome.—Being instructed in the Christian Religion, he embraced it, & made an open, pub­lick Profession of Christianity; and as a Nursing Father of the Christian Church, he made many Edicts in Favour of Christians, & the Christian Religion.—He first granted to Christians the free Exercise of their Religion, & restored to them their Churches, and conferred many Priviledges on them: He ex­horted all his Subjects to quit Paganism, and em­brace the Religion of Jesus Christ. He caused most of the Heathen Temples to be shut up, or thrown down, & enacted Laws against the Heathen [Page 45] Religion. He ordered magnificent Churches to be built, and endow'd them, and granted Immu­nities and Priviledges to the Clergy. He mani­fested a fervent & unfeigned Love to Christ, and his Religion: He shewed extraordinary Kindness for the Christian Church and the Ministers of it, as became so great and good a Man: and so zea­lous was he in Christianity, that his Palace re­sembled a Church. He personally invited the Mi­nisters of Christ to him, and his Palace, & treated them with great Veneration and Honour; and by Deeds as well as Words, he gave them a most kind and courteous Reception. He made many Laws from Time to Time, for the Support and Emolument of the Church. He granted to all Clergymen and their Families, a Freedom from Taxes and Tribute; and in his Reign, and by his Example & Encouragement, the Church was enriched by Gifts and Offerings. In his Reign the Church enjoyed Peace; and under the Laws of Constantine, Christians being freed from Perse­cution, and persecuting Powers, had a full and free Enjoyment of their civil Rights, and Christian Liberties.

Constantine manifested a just Concern for the true Faith of the Gospel, and the fundamental Doctrines of the Christian Religion; and there­fore when Arius broached his damnable Heresy, concerning Jesus Christ the Son of God (viz. that there was a Time when the Son of God did not exist, that he was created out of Nothing, and is of a different Substance from the Father) Constan­tine call'd a Council at Nice—the first General Coun­cil, compos'd of the Bishops of the whole Roman [Page 46] Empire East and West. He honour'd this Coun­cil with his Presence, and by his Authority & Mo­deration, he preserved Order and Peace.—This Council drew up a Creed (the famous Nicene Creed) in which it declared, that the Son of God was consubstantial with his Father; and ana­thematiz'd Arius and his Doctrine.

And tho' Constantine was afterwards deceived into a good Opinion of Arius by the Jugglings, and Prevarications of that Heretick, and his Par­tisans, yet he always adhered to the Omooúsian Faith declared by the Nicene Fathers, and detested the Doctrine of Arius—Thus Constantine reigned in Righteousness—and his Mother Helena Au­gusta is celebrated by the Historians of those Times,^* for her eminent and unaffected Piety, Zeal for Christ and his holy Religion.—And as she was rich in Faith, so in good Works—She was the liberal Soul, that devised liberal Things; and continued in Li­berality and Beneficence.

In Constantine and his Mother Helena was e­minently fulfilled that Prediction of the Prophet, Isai. 49. 23.—concerning the happy Times of the Gospel, when Kings and Queens gave up their Names to Christ, & supported the Church—And Kings shall be thy nursing Fathers, and their Queens thy nursing Mothers—It is very evident that this Prophecy was first remarkably accomplished in the Favours which Constantine, and his Mother Helena shewed to the Church, and had a further Accomplishment afterwards in other Emperors, Empresses, Kings and Queens. The latter Clause of the Verse, They shall bow down to thee with their [Page 47] Face to the Earth, may be justly applied to denote the great Honour & Deference which the Christian Kings and Emperors should pay to the Church, submitting themselves to the Laws of Christ, and owning themselves his Disciples—but to none may it be accommodated and applied with so great a Propriety, and Eminency, as to Helena and Constantine.

2. Theodosius the Elder, who also merited the Title of Great, is renowned in History, for his mighty Atchievements, & Victories over Tyrants and Usurpers, & delivering the Empire from their Outrage; and is justly celebrated on Account of his Piety, his Zeal in the Cause of Christ, his Care of the Church and extraordinary Affection to the Ministers of Christ. He was famous for his Or­thodoxy in Religion, and called the second General Council, at Constantinople, against Macedonius, who denied the Divinity of the Holy Ghost. Which Council, in their first Canon confirmed the Nicene Creed, and Anathematised the Arian & Macedo­nian Heresies. Theodosius is illustrious, and his Memory precious for his perfecting that good Work began by Constantine against Heathenism. Constantine was not able to finish so mighty and arduous an Affair, as the Extirpation of Paganism; but that idolatrous Religion was quite expelled by Theodosius A.D. 390. after which Time, it was never publickly maintained in the Roman Empire, He purged Rome from pagan Superstition, & Ido­latry, and gave Order that all pagan Sacrifices and Festivals should be abolished, and the Statues and Images of the Gods, broken in Pieces; and the pagan Temple of Serapis at Alexandria in Egypt, which [Page 48] remained to that Time, and had been so famous in the World for the Stateliness of its Structure, and Solemnity of its Worship, was by the Empe­ror's Command, utterly destroyed. Theodosius reigned in Righteousness, and was a Covert from the Tempest, as Rivers of Waters for Refreshment &c.

3. Alfred (Alured) King of England (from whom King GEORGE is lineally descended) Grandson of Egbert the Founder of the English Monarchy, and the first anointed King in Bri­tain, is one of the most famous Kings in all History, for his Wars and Victories, for his Administration of Justice▪ his Learning & Religion. He so dis­charged all the Offices of a King, & of a Christian, as perhaps no One in any Age can be found so eminent. I must account him (human Frailties excepted) a perfect Character. England may boast of an Alfred, as Britain of a Constantine.

In his Reign the Danes invaded England, and he was to his Subjects a Covert from the Danish Tempest, and as the Shadow of a great Rock in a weary Land. In all Bartles he was present every where, striking Fear & Terror into the Hearts of his Enemies▪ and giving new Courage to his own Men. He alone would expose his Breast to the Swords of the Enemy: He alone would restore the Fight when his Army was ready to flee, and by his own Example, he constrained his Soldiers to repel the insulting & pursuing Pagans. Fifty-six set Battles he fought against the Danes by Sea and Land, and of these, eight in one Day: And by his miraculous Courage and Conduct, he so afflicted and worried his Enemies, tho' they came [Page 49] in fresh Numbers upon him, that they were forced to give up what Hostages he demanded, and sub­mit to such Conditions as he thought fit to im­pose—And that these are no Flourishes, the uni­versal Consent of Historians bears Witness: All celebrate him as an Heroe▪ and by an unparallel'd Example tax him with no Vice.—And tho' Egbert is generally accounted the first Monarch of the English Saxons (our Ancestors) yet in Truth, he only mark'd out or began what was perfected by his Grandson Alfred.

He was admirable in the Administration of Justice, wherein to relieve the poor & distressed, he travelled Night and Day through his King­dom; for besides him, the People had in a Sense no Protector. There was such Partiality among the inferiour Judges of the Land, that the King was perpetually troubled with Appeals from their Decision of Causes, into which he so diligently enquired, that all Villany was ever bro't to Light. If he found his Judges unskilful, he gravely admonished them, and in Case they did not improve in Knowlege of Justice, they were to lose their Places.

The King himself being the superiour Judge (not only as to Authority but Administration of Justice) took Care that his People should be fur­nished with able Ministers: He also provided them with good Laws, and for the better Go­vernment of the whole English Nation, brought up several laudable Customs, which continue to this Day.

[Page 50] As to his Learning, he was the Wonder of his Age—He had a vehement Desire after Knowlege: and by reading Night and Day, or hearing some learned Men, he had a thoro' Knowlege of Books, and such Improvement did he make, that he be­came an excellent Grammarian, Philosopher, Rhe­torician, Historian, Musician, & Poet: And he was a perfect Architect, and Geometrician; and that Learning might flourish in the Land, he laid a Foundation for the Improvement thereof among his People: He founded a School at Oxford (since a famous University) for training up Youth in the liberal Arts, and endow'd it with a Part of his Revenue.

As to Religion, he excell'd more than in Learn­ing. He made a Vow to dedicate to God, in solemn Meditation & Prayer, the one half of his Time, except the Time of Sleep and necessary Refreshments.

I close with a summary View of him, by a learned Antiquary^* in this Exclamation:

"O Alfred, the Wonder and Astonishment of all Ages!—If we reflect upon his Piety and Religion, it would seem that he had never gone out of a Monastery—if on his Warlike Exploits—that he had liv'd no where but in a Camp—if on his Writings and Studies—that he had spent his whole Life in a University—and lastly, if we consider his Administration of the Affairs of his Kingdom and Subjects, one would think, that his whole Time had been em­ployed in nothing else but enacting Laws, and promoting Justice in his Courts, & Tribunals."— [Page 51] Behold here in Alfred, a King that Reigned in Righteousness.^‖

4. Henry Earl of Richmond, afterwards the se­venth of that Name, King of England, must not be passed over in Silence.—This mighty Prince at the Invitation of an affrighted, afflicted and distressed People came over from Britany, and by the Blessing of God, delivered the Nation from the Outrages of that most cruel Tyrant, & bloody Caitiff Richard, who had murdered his own Nephews, and usurped the Crown.—The Battle on the Plain of Bosworth is famous in the English Chronicles, & the compleat Victory obtained by the young Heroe over the infamous Usurper. In the Field of Battle, he kneel'd down & gave Thanks to Almighty God for this signal Favour.—In him concentred the royal Saxon [...] Norman & British [Page 52] Lines; for by Owen Tudor (ap Theodore) his Grand-Father, a Welchman, he descended in a right Line from Cadwallader the last King of Britain 700 Years before. And to this Henry Tudor is by some applied, what is spoken by Anchises to AEneas, concerning Augustus:

^‡

For it had been foretold to Cadwallader, that in after-Times his Race should set upon the Throne; and King Henry VIth plainly foreshewed that he should be King, even when he was a Child. He joined the two Roses in one, i. e. united the con­tending Houses of York and Lancaster, by marry­ing Elizabeth eldest Daughter of King Edward 4th. He laid the Foundation of uniting the two King­doms of England & Scotland under one King, by giving his eldest Daughter Margaret, in Marriage to James 4th King of Scots, from whom descend­ed our King James 1st of Great Britain. He ma­nifested his Regard to the Church, by employing Bishops Morton & Fox, and his Chaplain Urswike, in the greatest Part of his Negotiations. He put an End to all Civil Wars, and settled the Nation [Page 53] in Peace. He with his Parliament, enacted ex­cellent Laws, in particular one for Admission of poor Suitors at Law (in Forma Pauperis) without paying Fee to Attorney or Clerk.

As he was reputed an Oracle in his Time, so his Parliament was treated by him as his Oracle, for in all Matters of Importance, he would ask their Advice, and he sometimes put even his Pre­rogative into their Hands; which is to me an Evidence of his great Wisdom. The City of Lon­don was his Paradise, for what good Fortune so­ever befell him, he tho't he enjoy'd it not, 'till the Citizens were made acquainted therewith.—He reigned in Righteousness, and to England he was eminently as a hiding Place from the Wind, a Covert from the Storm, as Rivers of refreshing Waters, and as the Shadow of a great Rock in a weary Land.

5. Queen Elizabeth shines among the Potentates of England, with the brightest Rays. She was the Wonder of her Age, the Glory of her Sex, and the greatest crowned Head of Britain, from King Alfred to King William the Third. She de­livered England from Popery, and bloody Persecu­tion, and re-established the Protestant Religion.—By the Blessing of Heaven with her Wisdom, and Magnanimity, and the Courage and good Conduct of her Sea-Captains, she saved the Nation from the Spanish Invasion, in which the Protestants were marked out and doom'd to utter Destruction.—Her religious Respect to God in the Defeat and Ruin of the Spanish Fleet was apparent, when im­mediately thereupon, she came into the City, at­tended with the Nobility, as it were in Triumph, [Page 54] and in the Cathedral of St. Paul, in a most hum­ble Manner, gave Thanks to the Almighty, in the great Congregation.—She ruled over the Na­tion in Righteousness, and her Princes or chief Magistrates in Judgment; she had always a wise and faithful Council, and her great Officers were excelling Patriots, Lovers of the Nation, and ever seeking its Prosperity and Peace.—She was the Protector of Holland from the Rage and Fury of that execrable Tyrant Philip of Spain, and by her powerful Aids, the united Provinces were estab­lished a flourishing and happy Republick.—She so held the Sceptre, that her Subjects regarded her as the kindest Mother: The neighbouring Prin­ces esteemed her as the wisest Queen; her Ene­mies feared her as a righteous Avenger, and the whole Christian World with Admiration beheld her as the Preserver of the Peace of Europe. She has been justly compared with Augustus for the Length and Felicities of her Reign.—Let her Name never be forgotten by Britons, by English­men. Her Memory is blessed.^*

6. James the 6th of Scotland, and first Monarch of Great-Britain (in whom were united the Royal British, Saxon, Norman, and Scottish Houses) makes [Page 55] a grand Appearance, by his Grand-Daughter So­phia (the most accomplished Princess in Europe) as the great Progenitor of the illustrious Princes of Brunswick-Hanover, and Brandenburg-Prussia, the Protectors of the Protestant Nations, and the nursing Fathers of the Protestant Churches.^†

True Protestant Calvinists behold him as a De­fender of the Faith, zealous in the Cause of the true Religion, against the Blasphemies and mon­strous Doctrines of Vorstius the Socinian, whom the Arminian Faction in Holland had procured to succeed Arminius as Professor of Divinity at Ley­den. He powerfully interposed to save both State and Church from the Ruin threatned by that fa­natick and tumultuous Cabal.

By this King's repeated pressing Instances, joined with Maurice Prince of Orange, the States-General at last agreed to call a National Synod, and to invite all the Reformed Churches to send Deputies to it—which brought forward the re­nowned Synod of Dort, at which were present famous Calvinistical Divines by the King's Ap­pointment to represent the Church of England. [Page 56] In this Synod the Five Articles of Arminius and the Books of Vorstius were condemned: The Belgick Confession of Faith, and the Palatine Ca­techism were approved—And the States-General giving their Sanction to the Canons of the Synod, the Arminian Faction was broken, and Peace re­stored and established both in Church & State—And King James (by the Blessing of Heaven) was, to the Dutch Calvinists, a hiding Place from the Wind, and a Covert from the Tempest of Arminian Fury. But I hasten,

7. To name that illustrious Hero William-Henry, Prince of Orange. ^*

When his Birth under many and great Disad­vantages is considered; who could have thought, that he was born for the Preservation of Europe, and the Protestant Religion? His whole Life from twenty Years of Age, was one continued Cam­paign against Popery and Tyranny.

Louis of France, and Charles of England, con­federated in 1671, to enslave Europe, and intro­duce and establish Popery in England, and Holland, and the other Protestant States; & the next Year, the French King with a great Army invaded the Netherlands, and came down to Utrecht like a Land-Flood, and soon possess'd himself of three Provinces. This struck a universal Terror into the Dutch; but God raised up this glorious Prince to stem the Torrent of the raging Waters. With Wisdom and Vigilance above his Years, and a­mazing Courage & Presence of Mind, he opposed the Enemy's Force, obtained Victories, retook im­portant Places, & in a short Time recovered all, drove the French out of the Provinces, and forced them to evacuate and give up all their Conquests, and so the whole Face of Affairs was changed.

[Page 58] This was the Beginning o [...] the Fifth Crisis, brought on the whole Reformation, or the critical Time for the Protestant Religion and Liberties. It was but the Beginning, for Europe was in the Agitations of this Crisis forty Years; i. e. till the Peace of Utrecht—And here I will take Occa­sion to give some brief Account of the other four.

1. The first Crisis was—when Charles 5th. Em­peror of Germany, by defeating John Duke of Saxony, and the Landgrave of Hesse, and getting them into his Hands, had subdued the Smalcaldick League, in which the Strength of the Protestants did then consist: upon that Defeat all submitted to the Emperor.

Maurice now made Elector of Saxony, at the Head of the Imperial Army, at last resolved not to see the Ruin of Religion, & Liberty, fell so sud­denly and unexpectedly with his Forces upon the Emperor, that he was very near having surprized and taken him at Inspruck, and so overturned all that Design, upon which the Emperor had been labouring for many Years, viz. destroying the Protestant Religion and Liberties—This brought on the Treaty of Passau, and a Peace thereupon between the Emperor, and the Protestant Princes and States, whereby the free Exercise of Religion was secured to the Protestants; and so that Crisis passed over.

2. "The second Crisis was towards the End of the Reign of Queen Mary, when the Protestant Religion seemed almost extinguished in England, and the Cardinal of Lorrain, chief Minister of France, and Cardinal Granvel of Spain designed a Peace between the two Crowns, that their Masters [Page 59] Henry the 2d, and Philip 2d. might be at Leisure to extirpate Heresy, as they call it, i. e. the Pro­testant Religion, which was then spreading in both their Dominions. But after they had form­ed their Scheme, Queen Mary died, and was suc­ceeded by Queen Elizabeth in England; and soon after that the French King was accidentally kil­led, and that Kingdom fell under a long Conti­nuance of a Minority, viz. Charles the 9th, and a civil War on Account of Religion; and the Ne­therlands felt from thence and from Queen Eliz­abeth, such Encouragement that they made the longest and bravest Resistance against the Power of Philip, that is to be found in all History; and the Crisis ended."

3. The Third Crisis of the Reformation began in 1585, and lasted three Years.—The Catholic League (so called) of the Papists in France, was fomidable for a Time to the Protestants; the Prince of Parma was victorious in the Nether­lands; the Prince of Orange was murdered, and the States fell under great Distractions, & Spain entred into a Design of invading England, & dethroning Queen Elizabeth, and putting the Queen of Scots in her Stead: In order to that, the King of Spain was for some Years preparing the greatest Fleet that the World had ever seen, which came to be cal­led the Invincible Armada; and with the Disap­pointment & Ruin of that Fleet, this Crisis went off.

4. The Fourth Crisis came on in the Reign of Ferdinand 2d Emperor of Germany, and King of Bohemia—His Government was severe in that Kingdom, and he resolved to extirpate the Pro­testants, and began to break through the Privi­leges [Page 60] that were secured to them by the Laws of the Kingdom: This occasioned a general Insur­rection, which was followed by an Assembly of the States, who deposed him, and offered the Crown to Frederick [...]th Elector Palatine, who accepted it, depending on the Assistance of his Father-in-Law James King of England, ^‡ which if he had afford­ed, here was the most probable Occasion that had been, or has yet been offered since the Reforma­tion for the full Establishment of the Protestant Religion in Europe.

The English Nation was much inclined to support Frederick, but he had an invincible Aver­sion to War, and was so possess'd in Belief of a Divine Right in all Kings, that he could not bear that even an elective and limited King should be called in Question by his Subjects, so he would never acknowlege his Son-in-Law, nor give him any Assistance for the Support of his new Dig­nity; and Holland was very backward in giving Assistance. Frederic being beaten by the Empe­ror's Army near Prague, was drove out of his new Kingdom; the Palatinates, his Patrimony or Hereditary Dominions, were taken from him, and so he and his Wife and Children fled to the States of Holland, for a Place of Residence.

Against the Imperial Army (which was sent into all Parts of Germany to distress it) the Circle of Lower Saxony did arm it self, under the King of Denmark their General, but he received a great Overthrow by Tilly the Emperor's General, and thereupon the whole Power of the Protestants was broken.—The Emperor was so elevated with [Page 61] Success, that he did not Question, but for the fu­ture to be absolute in Germany, and with that View published a Proclamation, enjoining the Protestants to restore to the Catholicks all such Church Lands or Revenues, as were taken from them since the Peace made at Passau, and under this Pretence he hoped quickly to subdue the rest of the Protestant Princes. Indeed the Pro­testant Princes entred into a defensive Alliance at Leipsic, but without any great Prospect of Suc­cess, if young Gustavus Adolphus King of Sweden, had not come to their Assistance—This King came with an Army into Germany, and drove the Imperial Forces out of Pomerania, and the neigh­bouring Countries, and having afterwards joined his Forces with those of the Elector of Saxony, de­feated Count Tilly in the memorable Battle near Leipsick, when the Emperor at one Stroke, lost all the Hopes he had conceived from the happy Success of his Arms for twelve Years before: From thence Gustavus marched on to the Rhine, where he made almost miraculous Progresses—And tho' in a Battle afterwards he lost his Life, yet his Army was victorious over the new Army raised by the Emperor under Wellestein.

After his Death, the Generals & Confederates carried on the War under the Conduct of Oxe [...] ­stiern, Chancellor of Sweden, with good Success, and carried the War into the Emperor's Here­ditary Countries, which brought on a Treaty at Osnaburg, and a Peace was concluded between the Emperor and the Swedes, by which the Autho­rity of the States of Germany, and the Protestant Religion, were established at once, and the Empe­ror's [Page 62] Power confined within such Bounds that he could not easily afterwards attempt any Thing a­gainst either of them; and so this Crisis passed over by the Blessing of God, on that mighty Hero Gustavus, and his victorious Army.

And the Fifth Crisis which I touched before, began in 1672, when Louis and Charles confede­rated to swallow up the united Provinces, to master England, to demolish Protestantism both in England & Holland, to pave the Way for the Extirpation of that Religion through all Europe, and for establishing Popery.

This Crisis, as I said, continued in Agitation forty Years—The glorious Prince of Orange broke Louis's-Measures, and overturned his Schemes for that Time; yet not many Years after, the Crisis rose again, viz. in 1685; when Louis recalled, and vacated the Edict of Toleration of the Pro­testants, as he had been for many Years before weakning the Protestant Interest in France, to prepare for this fatal Stroke.

"The Year Eighty-five, must ever be remem­bred as the most fatal to the Protestant Religion. In February King James II. of England declared him­self a Papist, and went openly to Mass. In June Charles the Elector Palatine (Grandson of Fredi­rick) whose Father Charles Louis had been restor­ed to the Lower Palatinate & Electoral Dignity) dying without Issue, the Electoral Dignity went to the House of Newburg, a most bigotted popish Family.

In October the King of France recalled the Edict of Nantes, and in December the Duke of Savoy by the Perswasions or Threats of the Court of [Page 63] France, recalled the Edict that his Father had granted to the Vaudois; so it must be confessed, that this was a very critical Year. And at this Time was the Height of the Fifth great Crisis of the Protestant Religion in the Opinion of Bishop Burnet." ^*

"The King of France let loose some Bodies of Dragoons to live upon the Protestants at Dis­cretion, who were put under no Restraints, ex­cepting Rapes and Murder. This was begun in Bern, and soon after the same Method was pur­sued in Guienne, Languedoc and Dauphiné, where the greatest Number of Protestants were; and not only the Dragoons, but all the Clergy and the Bigots of France, broke out into all the In­stances of Rage and Fury, against all Protestants that did not change, upon their being required in the King's Name, to be of his Religion, for that was every where the Style."

"Men and Women who would not yield, were not only strip'd of all they had, but kept long from Sleep, and driven about from Place to Place. Women were thrust into Nunneries, where they were half starved, whip'd & barbarously treated. Multitudes of Protestants were banished the King­dom by publick Edict, and great Numbers were chained to the Gallies, and the publick Exercise of the Protestant Religion suppress'd throughout all his Dominions—And upon the whole, here was one of the most violent Persecutions that is to be found in History, and has been compared to the Tenth Persecution of the Primitive Church, under Dioclesian."

[Page 64] And I cannot but account it a Specimen or Pattern of the Slaughter of the Witnesses foretold in Rev. 11. 7. 8. by which I understand the kil­ling or banishing all the Ministers and other e­minent Confessors of Christ and his Religion, and the entire Suppression of the publick Exercise of the true Christian Religion throughout Christen­dom for three Years and a half; and in this Per­secution of the Protestants in France, we may have some Idea of what will then befall all the Protestant Nations and Churches. But to return,

Popery soon grew rampant in our Nation, and King James proceeded with an uncommon Zeal and Application to advance the Roman Interest; Britain was then in greater Danger than ever before; the King being in League with Louis, and having one of his own Kingdoms of his own Religion—The Forts and Castles were in the Hands of Papists, and the Army under popish Officers. The Romish Worship was set up in se­veral Places of the Nation, and even in its great Metropolis, Jesuits, those Frogs of the Mystical Egypt (Father Petre and his croaking Company) were in the King's Chambers: Monks & Fryars appeared publickly in their Habits: The English Laws were trampled upon, and England was strip'd of their Rights and Immunities.—In a Word, Hell & Rome were Day & Night at work to add the finishing Stroke, to what had been so long contriving.

For the Succour of the most distressed and affrighted Nation, God raised up a Deliverer, this glorious Prince of Orange, and in Consequence of his Expedition to England,—King James's Abdi­cation [Page 65] —the setting the Crown on the Head of the Prince and Princess of Orange; and the Re­duction of Ireland, the Nations were for that Time saved from Popery and Slavery.

But the Crisis rose again in the Beginning of this Century.

In 1700, the abdicated King James died in France, and the French King caused the pretended Prince of Wales, to be proclaimed with great Solemnity, King of England, Scotland and Ireland, and therein his Design was evident enough.

And a little after in the same Year Charles the Second of Spain died (without Issue) and by his Will (real or forged) the Duke of Anjou second Son of the Dauphin was made his Successor to the whole Spanish Monarchy, contrary to the Treaty of Partition: And upon his declaring that he accepted of the Will, he was proclaimed, sa­luted and treated as King of Spain, and thereupon he went to Spain, and took Possession of his new Kingdom.

And immediately French Troops were sent to take Possession of the Spanish Netherlands. This unexpected Event threw a dark Cloud over the Face of Affairs in Europe. France was now possess'd not only of the Netherlands, but of the whole Span­ish Monarchy too, & therewith of all the Riches of America.—And the Scheme of Louis for an uni­versal Empire, and the Extirpation of what he call'd the Northern Heresy was again visible in erecting.

England was disarm'd and divided; Holland was encompassed by the French Power; the Em­pire was weak, because disjointed, and the Affairs [Page 66] of Christendom were brought to as dangerous a Crisis, as could easily be imagined.

The vigilant King William was active & busy in opposing the Designs of France, and perfected an Alliance between the Emperor, England and Holland, and before his Death projected the whole Scheme of the War, that became absolutely neces­sary for the Preservation of Europe: And 'tis well known, that in the Reign of Queen Anne, by the wonderful Success of the Arms of the Allies un­der the valiant Eugene and Marlborough, that as­piring Monarch Louis 14th, was humbled & bro­ken—And that long Crisis came to a full Period, at the Death of Louis 14th; and when the great Elector of Hanover sat on the British Throne.

The Appearance of King GEORGE, as of the Sun in his Strength instantly dispell'd the Mists, scattered the Clouds, and dissipated the gloomy Terrors, and filled the Hearts of true Protestant Britons with Joy, as the Light of the Morning when the Sun riseth, even a Morning without clouds.

King GEORGE I. (of blessed Memory) was our Protector and Defender from Jacobite Outrage, and popish Tyranny—And our gracious Sove­reign now Reigning, GEORGE II. is as the Light of our Eyes, and the Breath of our Nostrils: GOD hath ordained a Lamp for his Anointed, and upon him­self shall his Crown flourish.

And now to close this Section, which was an Accommodation of my Text to the Prince of Orange, the glorious King WILLIAM, I will only add, "That this great Man must be considered by us Protestants, as raised up by God to resist the Power of France, and the Progress of Tyranny and Persecution.

[Page 67] The Series of the Five Princes of Orange, that ended in him, was the noblest Succession of He­roes that we find in any History, and the thirty Years from 1672, to his Death in which he acted so great a Part, carry in them so amazing Steps of a glorious & distinguishing Providence, that in the Words of David, he may be called the Man of God's right Hand, whom he made strong for himself."^*

It may be said with great Propriety in the ac­commodated Sense of my Text, that King William reigned in Righteousness, and was as a hiding Place from the Wind, and as a Covert from the Storm of War & Persecution—as Rivers of Waters in a dry Place, as the Shadow of a great Rock in a weary Land.^†

[Page 68] I have now considered & illustrated my Text in Accommodation to seven great Personages (if King James the First may be admitted, by the Courtesy of England.) And to these I will add,

8. A mighty Man, and the Protestant Heroe, another Prince of Orange, Charles Frederick the present King of Prussia, ^‡ sprung from noble An­cestors, zealous Protestants and Calvinists, and true Patriots.

"Frederick-William Elector of Brandenburg (and Father to the first King of Prussia) who deceased in 1688, had set it up for a Maxim, that the Electo­ral Families in Germany had weakned themselves so much, that they would not be able to main­tain the Liberty of the Empire, against the Austrian Family, which was then rising by their Victories in Hungary—He observed that the Houses of Saxe and the Palatine, and of Brunswick and Hesse had done this so much, by the dismembring some of their Dominions to their younger Children, that these Houses were mouldring to Nothing, he therefore resolved to keep all his Dominions en­tire in one Hand—This he thought would make his Family the Balance to the House of Austria, on whom the rest of the Empire must depend.^†

This Passage is very remarkable, and worthy of particular Observation.

It was of God, that Frederick-William had such Sagacity and Foresight; and 'tis apparent that by the Blessing of God, in Consequence of his wise Conduct, his Family is, in less than half a [Page 69] Century, become the Balance to the House of Austria, and the great Bulwark of the Pro­testant Religion and Liberties in Germany.

His great Grand-son Charles-Frederick was able in the last preceeding War, to give Law at the Head of a mighty Army, to the Empress Queen, to the King of France, and the other contending Powers of Europe.

And in the present War, by the Divine Aid, he has cut off one Head of the grand Confederacy against him, Augustus King of Poland, and Elector of Saxony.—This mighty Man, this illustrious Prince is the most renowned of the Age, for Wis­dom and Valour, for Religion & Virtue, and the greatest and most valiant Leader of Armies in our Times, next to Charles 12th King of Sweden, who (in my Opinion) was greater than Alexander and Caesar for martial Skill and Prowess, nor does the Battle of Pultowa, which ruin'd all his Affairs, lessen the Hero.

GOD has raised up the King of Prussia to exe­cute his Will, for He has a terrible Work in do­ing among the Nations.

This glorious Potentate lives, and wars, and triumphs in the midst of numerous and potent Enemies—The popish Confederacy for the Ruin of the Protestants is formidable: It is indeed a strong Confederacy of Austria and Bourbon, 'till now, never united.

And this must be accounted the sixth great Crisis of the Reformation, when the protestant Religion and Liberties are in a very dangerous Situation; and yet, to me, it does not hitherto appear so dangerous a Crisis as the fifth and last preceed­ing [Page 70] —How much higher it may rise, and how long Europe and America shall be under the Agitations of it, we cannot foresee or foretell without the Spirit of Prophecy.

God only foreknows the Issue of the present Wars and Commotions that are among the Nati­ons of Europe.

If I could believe that the fourth Vial shall be poured out (i.e. the grand Supports of the Papacy removed) before the Slaughter of the Witnesses, I might suppose that it is now in pouring out by the King of Prussia, but seeing (as appears to me) the Slaughter of the Witnesses shall precede that Vial, which will come to pass at or about the End of their Prophecy or the 1260 Years, the pouring out the Vial must be at a great Distance from our Times—And according to my small Knowledge of Scripture-Prophecies concerning the future State of the Church, I cannot think that any remarka­ble Prediction is now in the fulfilling: i.e. in a strict and proper Sense of the Prophecy. Nor do I suppose, that any great Revolution in Europe will ensue the present War, or any great Change in North-America. At the End of the present War, this sixth Crisis may go off, as others before, without any remarkable Alteration in the Face of religious Affairs, whether popish or protestant.

The next or seventh Crisis may issue in the Slaughter of the Witnesses, (i.e. the total Suppressi­on of the publick Exercise of the true Religion &c.) and not many Years after, Rome Papal will fall, and in due Time the Millennium will commence.

In the mean Time, and in the present gloomy and tempestuous State of Things, let the protestant [Page 71] Nations and Provinces look to God and trust in Him—Let us know and remember, that when all the Sluices are opened, and the Flood-Gates broken up, so that we expect nothing but to be over-whelmed, God can raise up such Banks, and Ramparts, as shall keep out the raging Waters, and restrain their Violence.

Indeed it is told us Protestants, that France is confederate with Austria, & our Heart is moved—but let us not fear for the two Tails of these smoak­ing Fire-Brands—God is our Refuge & Strength, a very present Help in Trouble, therefore let us not fear, tho' the Waters of the Sea roar, and be troubled, tho' the Mountains shake with the Swelling thereof, there is a River, the Streams whereof shall make glad the City of God: God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved; the Lord of Hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our Refuge.

Having now finished the doctrinal Illustration of my Text, I shall make Application in a Word of Instruction, respecting civil Government in ge­neral—the British Government in particular—and the Priviledges of Government in this Province by Royal CHARTER under the Smiles of our gra­cious Sovereign—And shall then close with par­ticular Addresses.

I. Let us improve our Text respecting civil Go­vernment in general, & duly acknowlege the divine Goodness in ordaining Magistracy among Men.

Indeed God Almighty, the supreme Lord of Man, has not himself instituted a civil Govern­ment among other Nations, as he did over the Nation of Israel; and the political Government [Page 72] of that Nation by Divine Institution wholly ceased, when its national State was utterly bro­ken, and their Commonwealth demolished—Nor has Jesus Christ the mediatorial King left any designed Plan or Model for the political Govern­ment of Christian Nations—Nor doth God him­self name and appoint the Person who shall hold the Sceptre, in any Nation of the World, as he did to the Israelitish Nation in the Persons of Saul and David, and others afterwards; nor has God appointed any particular Persons, in any Nation, to make civil or municipal Laws or Statutes; nor has he named, nor does he name the Judges that are to interpret the Laws, and put them in Execution; and yet the Apostle Paul says, that there is NO Power but of God, the Powers that be, are ordained of God, Rom. 13. 1.—"The Powers he there speaks of must be the Roman Emperors, and those that rul'd under them; for he wrote in that Time, when Rome was the Mistress of the World, and to Christians living in the Metropolis, Rome herself."—"Now the Roman Emperors then in Being were not in strictness of Speech ordain­ed of God, but were elected by the Roman Ar­mies, or chosen and confirmed by the Senate." And hence Dr. Whitby (on that Text) makes this clear Inference, "That an immediate Appoint­ment or Designation of the Person by God can­not be necessary, to render any Prince, God's Or­dinance"—"And though it be granted that God has made a general Appointment or Ordinance, in the fifth Commandment, or by a Law of Na­ture, requiring that all Nations should have some Government placed over them, yet no individual [Page 73] Person can claim a Right, to be the higher Power in any Nation, more than others, nor are the Peo­ple by it, tied to yield Obedience to this Man, more than that—This therefore cannot be suffi­cient to make a Man the individual Person, who is God's Ordinance, in Reference to such a Na­tion.—It remains therefore that this Authority be conveyed to this or that individual Person or Fa­mily, by Compact, Consent or Choice of the Per­sons governed, that such a Person or Family shall have the supreme Authority in such Nation. It therefore must be such a Choice, Consent or Con­tract, that renders any Person the Ordinance of God to such a Nation. And this is what Men call a legal Right or Title to the Crown, i.e. a Title by the Laws & Constitutions of the Land."^†

And this is the Basis of the Establishment of Royalty in the House of Hanover, viz. by the Re­presentative of the Nation in Parliament.—And King WILLIAM our great Restorer, had a clear Title to the British Crown by the Choice & Con­sent of the People in Parliament, which is indeed the only good Title of all lawful Governments; and so both He and his Successors to our present King GEORGE the Second, have the Title to the Crown more fully and clearly than any Prince in Christendom.

"But then, as mu [...]al Consent and Contract make two Persons Man and Wife, and yet Matri­mony is God's Ordinance, and the Power of the Man over the Wife, and of the Wife over the Body of the Husband is from God—and as among us (in England) one becomes a Master, and another [Page 74] a Servant by Consent and Covenant, and yet the Master hath from God Authority over the Ser­vant; so here the individual Person becomes the higher Power, by the Consent, the Choice or Con­tract original or actual, of the Community, but yet the Power he exercises in that Station is of God the Fountain of all Power, and he acts in that Station not as the Minister of Man, but of God."^‖

And so at this Day a King reigns in Britain, and Princes or chief Magistrates under him rule by the Ordinance and Appointment of God, and under Jesus Christ the mediatorial King, into whose Hand all Power and Authority is commit­ted by the Father, for the good of the Church.—And hence by him (the essential Wisdom of the Father, as himself speaks in Prov. viii. 15, 16.) Kings reign and Princes decree Justice, by him Princes rule, and Nobles, even all the Judges of the Earth.—

This Ordinance of God is well adapted to serve excellent Ends & Purposes of good to Mankind—Hereby the just Rights and Properties of Men are secured, and good Order preserved—And this is one great End of political Society and Govern­ment, and hereby the true Religion is maintained, for advancing the spiritual and eternal Interests of Men; but I would not be understood to insinu­ate, that the true Religion of Jesus cannot be sup­ported on Earth, without the Countenance of the Magistrate and human Laws.—The Church of Christ is founded on a Rock, and the Powers of Hell shall not prevail against it so as to overthrow [Page 75] it, even though it had no outward, or Protection of earthly Powers.—And the Christian Religion was maintained in the World from the first found­ing of the Church for almost three hundred Years, without the Support of human Laws, or Christian Emperors & Kings, Britain only excepted, where King Lucius (the first Christian King in the World) towards the latter End of the second Century, protected and cherished the British Churches, by his Government & Laws.^* But excepting him, there was not any Christian King or Emperor on Earth, 'till Constantine the Great; and most of the Emperors before him, were profess'd Enemies to the Christian Religion, and with Rage and Fury persecuted the Professors of it—And yet the Church was upheld, the holy Religion of Jesus preserved and propagated; and it was said, the Blood of the Martyrs was the Seed of the Church—And afterwards when the true Church was under the terrible Persecutions of the papal Antichrist, yet being founded on a Rock, it was not demolished, it weather'd out all Storms & Tempests.—But all this notwithstanding, it must be acknowledged as a great Favour and Smile of Heaven, when the great Powers of the Earth turned Christian, or openly appeared for the Protection & Encourage­ment of the Christian Religion; a special Favour, when God raised up Kings the nursing Fathers, and Queens the nursing Mothers of the Christian Church.

When Kings & Emperors turned to be Christi­ans, they were in a Sense Vicegerents of Christ, who is the Head of the Church, and the Prince [Page 76] of the Kings of the Earth, Rev. 1. 5. Under Christ the mediatorial King, who reigns in Righ­teousness over the Church, earthly Princes pro­fessing his Religion rule in Judgment, and are to the Church as a hiding Place from the Wind, and as a Covert from the Tempest of Persecution; a Refuge of Defence from the Rage and Violence of wicked Men. And under Jesus Christ the great King, Christian Princes who understand their Duty, uphold the true Religion, maintain the true Worship of God, and preserve the Church in the Enjoyment and Exercise of her Christian Rights and Liberties—And this Ordinance of God being so well adapted to serve such excel­lent Ends and Purposes, let us acknowlege the Goodness of God in the Ordinance of Magistracy on Earth. I proceed—

II. To make Application of our Text respect­ing the British Government in particular, and the happy Establishment thereof.

(1.) Let us thankfully observe the distinguish­ing Favour of Heaven to our Nation and Land, in ordaining for them so happy a Constitution of civil Government, so well adapted to answer the Ends of the Magistracy.^*

[Page 77] The British Constitution is a mix'd Govern­ment or bounded Monarchy—The supreme Power of Great Britain, consists of the King, the Nobility, and the Representatives of the People, called the Commons—These are the three Bran­ches of the highest Power in the Nation, who make Laws for the Government of the Nation; and the putting these Laws in Execution, is in the Hands of the King, who for the impartial Ad­ministration of Justice, erects Courts and appoints Judges and other Court Officers under them for this Purpose. And the King and his Officers are obliged to Rule according to the settled & known [Page 78] Laws and Statutes of the Nation.^*—And every Man has the Privilege of being tried by his Peers, as we say, or Equals; and therefore Juries are chosen from among the People, appointed and [Page 79] sworn to bring in their Verdicts on Cases before them, between Man and Man, according to Law and Evidence.—And excepting the common In­firmities of human Nature, impartial Justice may be expected in general to be dealt out in Court Processes.

And by this Constitution every Member of the State is treated in such a Manner as is most rational, most equitable, and most con­ducive to the publick Good—And this Govern­ment requires no unnatural and unjust Precau­tions, to support it, but in it's own Nature tends to it's own Preservation.

It is so far from requiring Art or Violence to support it, that both these are needful in order to disturb it—There is nothing in this Constitu­tion (in it self considered) violent or oppressive, but every Thing is founded on Reason & Justice. All understanding Men will become its Guard, because they see they cannot possibly have any Interest to make it otherwise—and its Excellency is visible in this—that notwithstanding the Lux­ury and Corruption of the last hundred Years, yet the Form of Government is still subsisting, and is seen to answer the Ends of Government. In­deed it cannot be said that the British Constitution prevents all Inconveniencies; such a perfect Go­vernment is not to be expected on Earth, but this is certain, that these Evils are better guarded a­gainst, [Page 80] or more easily remedy'd under this Consti­tution, than under any other. And 'tis no rheto­rical Flourish, but an honest plain Truth, that the British civil Government is the best Constitution and Establishment that is now on the Face of the Earth.^‡—Most certainly every one will readily grant, that 'tis unspeakably better than that of France, and several other Kingdoms of Europe, as well as the Turkish and Eastern Governments, where their Kings and Emperors have a despo­tic, i.e. an absolute arbitrary Power over the Lives, Liberties and Estates of their Subjects, and so the Condition of the People in all those Countries, is properly speaking a State of Slavery—where the Will of the Prince is the Rule & Law for the go­verning of his People—Whereas according to our Constitution, the British People are in a State of Liberty; i.e. under a legislative Power, estab­lished by Consent in the Common-wealth or Kingdom, and not under the Dominion of any [Page 81] Will, or the Restraint of any human Law, but what that Legislature shall enact according to the Trust reposed in it.^†

It is the happy Freedom of Britons, of Eng­lishmen under Government, to have standing Laws to live by, common to every one of the Community, and made by the legislative Power erected in the Nation, as was before hinted.—And under this happy Constitution, and the Ex­ecution of these Laws, Liberty is preserved, Pro­perty is secured, Order is maintained, and above all, the true Religion is upheld and promoted, to the Glory of God, the Honour of the blessed Je­sus, and the spiritual Felicity of all honest Pro­fessors of Christianity.

II. Let us most gratefully observe the wonder­ful Appearances of a gracious God for these Na­tions, in preserving to them this excelling Con­stitution of civil Government, and saying them from Tyranny, Slavery and antichristian Dark­ness. Many a Time has the Lord delivered his People when in Danger of sudden Destruction, and has caused Light to shine out of Obscurity. It will suffice, if I go no further back than the Reign of King James the Second, who set up his Will and Prerogative above the Laws of the Land, and endeavoured to overturn the whole Consti­tution; and upon the Dissolution of the old estab­lished Government, to introduce an absolute des­potick [Page 82] Power, in Imitation and according to the Pattern of Louis 14th of France, and therewith to bring in the popish Religion, so well calculated for an Agreement with arbitrary Power in the State, under a Prince wholly Jesuited, and under the Influence of Bigotry to the Romish Principles almost without a Parallel.

But lo! in the midst of Distress and Perplexity of the British People, God raised up a Deliverer, the Prince of Orange, afterwards the glorious King WILLIAM, the great Restorer of the Eng­lish Constitution, and under God their Saviour from Slavery and Popery.

God suddenly broke the Schemes, disappoint­ed and blasted the Designs and Stratagems of France and Rome for our Ruin. And on the Prince's Arrival, the golden Phantoms of un­bounded Rule and Sovereignty that had so long glittered in the King's Eyes, disappeared in a Moment, and he found himself standing on a frightful Precipice, and the Support that bore him broke under him. The happy Revolution ought never to be forgotten by Protestants, Britons, and Transmarine English.

The Nations were delivered from an arbitrary popish King and jesuitical Counsels; and from the Hazard of having a supposititious Heir of the Crown imposed on them, and educated in the Romish Communion, to the Ruin of their Reli­gion and Property.

And in the Reign of this our great Deliverer and Restorer, the Succession of the British Crown was settled in the House of Hanover, the parlia­mentary Establishment of the Succession in that [Page 83] illustrious Family, to the Exclusion of all Papists, tho' nearer in Blood, was the Consequence of the happy Revolution.

And this indeed is an undoubted and indispu­table Title, being done by the whole Legislature of a wise and free protestant People, jealous of their civil Liberties, and highly regarding the Protection of their religious Rights, as protestant Britons.—And from the Time forward the an­cient good and wholesome Laws and Statutes were restored for the publick Weal. And the Nation being recovered to a State of Freedom, did by their Parliaments make use of their Liber­ty, to make such other Laws, and take such other Methods as were most proper to preserve them from such Dangers in Times to come. "And moreover the Nations were delivered from a Rem­nant of Popery, that stuck so long to them, viz. Persecution of protestant Dissenters, by the Act of Toleration, which still subsists, and God grant it ever may continue in full Force, according to the true Intent & Meaning thereof, whereby all Pro­testants are at Liberty to worship God, according as they are perswaded in their Conscience is most agreable to his Will, without fear of being ruin'd in their Persons or Estates by any Faction promp­ted thereunto by the Court, and without Hazard of having any Party of Protestants join with Pa­pists to overthrow the established Church for pri­vate Interest." Nor should we overlook the for­mer and late Deliverances granted by our God from the popish Pretenders both Father and Son. This, this is an unspeakable Mercy—For woe, woe to the British Nations and Plantations, if [Page 84] ever the Pretender, or any of his Race gets Posses­sion of the British Throne. But we trust in God who hath delivered, that He will yet deliver us, that the King, the Prince, the whole Royal House, with the Nation, may joy in the Strength of the Lord, and greatly rejoyce in his Salvation.

I go on,

III. In Application of our Text to this Pro­vince, and the civil Government thereof, as a Branch of the British State and Empire.—Let us with deep Attention consider its peculiar Privi­leges by the Royal CHARTER, and the Smiles of our gracious Sovereigns, and let us acknowlege the divine Goodness in preserving to us our ex­cellent Constitution.—

This People have been favoured in former Times with excellent Governours, or chief Com­manders, by the tender Care of our nursing Fathers and nursing Mothers—among whom a Dudley, a Belcher, and a Dummer, cannot be forgotten; Gentlemen of Wisdom, Justice and Goodness, in the Administration of Government—of Religion and Virtue, and memorable for their great Re­gard and Affection to the Ministers of Religion.

Mr. Dummer will be remember'd in the Land, for his most prudent, righteous and mild Conduct of the public Affairs, so happy for the Province, and so pleasing to the People.—He retired from the Government to a private Life, with a Temper and Behaviour so suitable to a Soul that is raised above the World, and the Honours of it, to a de­vout Contemplation on heavenly Glories.—In his advanced Age, he has the Comfort in Reflection of having served his GOD, his King & his Country, with Integrity.

[Page 85] We cannot be unmindful of the Smiles from the Throne in the Appointment of so distinguish'd and accomplish'd Gentlemen as Mr. Addington, and Mr. Willard, to the very important Place of Secretary.—Mr. Secretary Addington was famous in his Day for Wisdom, Probity and Fidelity in the discharge of the public Trust.—And the Name of Mr. Secretary Willard (the good Secretary) is as the most fragrant Ointment. The Fame of his good Deeds, his long and saithful public Services, remains after he is dead, and he will live in a good Report.—His Continuance in the Secretary's Of­fice forty Years, and in all that Time managing the Affairs under his Care, not only without Error and Fault, but with universal Applause, is with­out a Precedent, and cannot but raise our Admi­ration.

He was a Christian of a true primitive Spirit, an Israelite indeed, without Guile, and a shining Ex­ample of Piety and Virtue. This excellent Ser­vant of God is deceased—and is it not our Duty to embalm his precious Memory? And can those who for many Years were acquainted with his eminent Graces and moral Endowments, refrain dropping a Tear on his Grave?—O Boston! thy Beauty is faded—the Lord hath taken from thee—the Judge, the Prudent, and the Ancient, the Honourable Man, and the Councellor—Help Lord, for the godly Man ceaseth—and where is the Man to be found among you to stand in the Gap?—Blessed be God, our Eyes see one of a like Spirit, Piety and pure Conversation, by Royal Appoint­ment, repairing the public Breach.—And Mr. Se­cretary Oliver excelling in Prudence, Uprightness, [Page 86] and unblemish'd Virtue, will obtain the just Re­wards of his faithful public Services.

But to return from this Digression, for which I ask Pardon, if I have offended.

As we have in Times preceeding been happy under wise and good Governours, so we hope to be thus happy in Times coming.—

Our good and gracious KING has given us a fresh Mark of his Royal Favour, in appointing Mr. POWNALL to the chief Seat of Government, at such a Day as this.—

Your Excellency in your great Goodness, will permit me on this public Occasion & Solemnity, to congratulate you as the chief Prince among the Princes of the Province, trusting in God, that you will rule in Judgment under King GEORGE, who reigns in Righteousness—that under GOD and the KING, you will be as a hiding Place, and a Refuge from the Storm, in the present tumultuous and tem­pestuous State—as Rivers of Waters in a dry Place, as the Shadow of a great Rock in a weary Land.

We render our hearty Thanks to God the su­preme Governor among the Nations, that he has directed the KING to a Gentleman of so great Ca­pacity for Government.—Though with the aged, by long Experience, there is Wisdom; yet God giveth to the young Man also, Knowlege & Discre­tion.—Elihu, though inferior in Years to Job and his three Friends, yet appeared much superior to them all in Understanding, in a right Knowlege of God, his Attributes, Providence and Govern­ment of the World:—And we hope the Under­standing [Page 87] of an Elihu will appear in all your pub­lic Conduct.

All civiliz'd Nations and Countries have ex­pressed their Sense of this; that Governors and Men in Authority ought to be Men of good Ca­pacity and Knowlege.—When our Saxon An­cestors gave the Name of Koning (by Contraction King) that is, a wise Man, to their supreme Magi­strate, they taught us, what was a necessary Pro­perty in crowned Heads, which is also a necessa­ry Qualification in Governors & Magistrates un­der them.—The Emperor Marcus Aurelius (An­toninus Philosophus) had very often in his Mouth that Saying of the great Philosopher Plato, that then indeed Common-wealths would flourish, when Phi­losophers reigned, when Rulers were skilled in Phi­losophy. ^* Such an one was Marcus himself, and such was the Character of some of his Predecessors, as Augustus, Titus, Adrian, and Alexander Severus. And some of his Successors, Constantine the Great (as appears by his very learned Oration to the Convention of the Saints) and Theodosius the Elder, and Charles the Great—all good Rulers, as well as learned Princes.—And therefore may we not hope for great Felicities under the Go­vernment of a Gentleman of polite Literature, skill'd in the liberal Arts, and a Philosopher.—We are perswaded such an one will favour Learn­ing, and smile upon Men of that Character.

The Character of a true Philosopher takes in religious Endowments, & moral Virtues, in which we shall behold you no common Example—And [Page 88] a generous public Spirit is also a constant Com­panion of true Philosophy—and therefore we be­lieve, you will aim at the common Good and espouse the public Weal.—The true Philosopher prefers the Advantages of the Community, before his private Interest.

The Emperor Adrian's Motto is an excellent one for Rulers (Non mihi, sed Populo) not for my self, but the Public, i.e. the Welfare of the People must be my chief Aim;^‡ which well agrees with that Preface or Head to the Laws of the twelve Tables—(salus Populi suprema Lex esto)—Let the Welfare of the People be esteemed the highest Law—which must have a governing Power over all Laws.

A true philosophical Soul only, is fit for pub­lic Employment, and Government.

We may observe in the fifth Verse of our Con­text, a happy Change in the State of Things, when religious, virtuous, public-spirited Men were in civil Rule—the vile Person shall no more be called liberal, nor the Churl said to be bountiful, i. e. shall not have the Style and Title of Prince bestowed on them, for so the Words in the Original im­port—"Under a Prince that loves and honors Virtue, unworthy Persons shall not be advanced to Degrees of Honour & Dignity."—There follows in 6, 7 & 8 Verses, an excellent Illustration, ‘For the vile Person will speak Villany, & his Heart [Page 89] will work Iniquity—to make empty the Soul of the hungry, and he will make the Drink of the thirsty to fail—the Instruments of the Churl (that is, the selfish, sordid, covetous Man) are evil; he deviseth wicked Devices to de­stroy the poor with lying Words, even when the needy speaketh right; but the liberal de­viseth liberal Things, and by liberal Things shall he stand.’

"Which Words shew the different Temper and Method of the base & narrow-soul'd Man, and of him that is truly generous & public-spirited.—The former hath no true Sense either of Honour, or Conscience, but makes it his Business, under spe­cious Pretences, to prevent Judgment & Justice, Whereas the Designs of the latter, are truly great and worthy of his Character, and it is by these only, that he seeks to support his Dignity."^†

We believe, that under the Direction of such a noble Spirit, this People shall have Occasion, by many Thanksgivings, to express their grateful Sense of the divine Favour vouchsafed in that Regard.

Your Excellency will (I hope) ever have a wise and faithful Council, in all the public Affairs that you shall open before them; who will give their best Advice for the KING's Honour, & the People's Happiness.

And those Gentlemen that from Year to Year shall be chosen to Represent the several Towns in the General Assembly, will be Men of Understand­ing and Integrity, and will approve themselves [Page 90] Pillars of the State, and ever studious of the pub­lic Safety and Peace.

The Ministry, who are (as well as the Magi­stracy) most loyal to King GEORGE, & zealous for the protestant Succession in his Family, and Friends to good Government, will be incessant in their Prayers to Almighty GOD, that your Administration may be attended with great Pros­perity both to your Excellency & this People—

Sir,—we behold you as a true Protestant (a pro­fessed Member of a most illustrious Branch of the Reformation, the Church of England) a true Bri­tain, and whose Heart is entirely English—and therefore we perswade ourselves, you will nourish and cherish true Protestants, and Britains in Ame­rica—that you will naturally love & care for your own Country-men on this Side the Atlantick, & ever pursue their best Interests.—Our small, but very flourishing Academy (at Cambridge) under the Direction and Government of the very learned, virtuous and worthy, the President, Professors and Tutors, will not be neglected by you, as your Excellency has a special Relation thereto, being Head in the Visitation.

And after a long & happy Administration for the Interest of Religion and Learning, and the public Weal—when it shall please the KING to advance you to a Place of greater Honour, and more extensive Usefulness—or when it shall please the Great King to advance you to heavenly Honour and Glory, may the Name of Governor POWNALL, be more fragrant, and his Memory be more precious than the Name and Memory of DUDLEY and BELCHER.

[Page 91] As Mr. THOMAS HUTCHINSON^* is by the Royal Commission, advanced to the second Seat of Honour and Government in the Province, I may with a Propriety address him also as a chief Prince among the Princes.

I beg your Honour will allow me to join my hearty Congratulations, with the Rejoycings of all this People, for this great Favour of our God and our King.

Your Honour has for many Years, even from youthful Age, shined in important Stations, in the House, at the Board, and as a Judge; and by your excelling and unexceptionable Conduct, have been universally approved and applauded, as a Gentleman of great Wisdom, Integrity, Pub­lick-spiritedness & Virtue: You have purchased a good Degree, and merited this further Ad­vancement; wherein you may by the Blessing of Heaven, still serve God, your King and your Country. The Voice of the King and the Voice of the People united, must undoubtedly be deemed the Voice of God; and stimulated here­by, you will continue to make Use of your great Abilities, and larger Interest, and Oppor­tunity also, as God shall offer, to seek and pro­mote the Peace and Prosperity of the Province, civil and religious: that both your Honour [Page 92] and all this People, may hereafter have Reason to remember GOD and the KING with Thanks­giving.

Among the Favours of God vouchsafed to this People in their political State and by Char­ter, some of the greatest are, the free Election of the Representatives of the People in General Court; the Freedom of the House, even as the British House of Commons, in all that comes or lies before them of a publick Nature, and re­specting the Community they represent; and the Election of his Majesty's Council, the se­cond Branch of the Legislature: Great and im­portant Trusts! And we must acknowlege the Divine Goodness, that this our political Constitu­tion is still preserved, and that the Province has for so many Years been bless'd with a House of Representatives, Fathers of their Country, Guardi­ans of our Liberties, and who from Year to Year transact our publick Affairs for the common Good. And that such worthy Gentlemen are annually elected into Council, as under God and our King and his Representative, have been publick Blessings, and Benefactors.—And may the Divine Influence be vouchsafed to the Electors on this great Anni­versary.

Honoured Fathers, the Council and House of Representatives:

This whole Assembly rejoyces to see this aus­picious Day; and the Language of those who love their Country is, The Lord direct you; Your God prosper you: And the Ministers of Christ in his Sanctuary, may be heard to say, We bless you [Page 93] out of the House of the Lord.—In the Transactions of this Day, and in all Concerns of a publick Nature, may the highest Judicatory of the Pro­vince, be adorned with the Wisdom that is from above, pure and peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated; full of Mercy and good Fruits, the Fruits of Righteousness, without Partiality, and without Hypocrisy—And seeing and knowing what is their own and this People's best and highest Interest, may they steadily pursue it, to the general Approbation of the Province, and even to the Joy of future Generations.

And now, to shut up all, what Nation is there on Earth so great as the British Nations, and Ame­rican Provinces?—What other People is there, that hath Statutes and Judgments so righteous, as the Laws Divine and Human that are set before us? Only let us take heed to our selves, and keep our Souls diligently, lest we forget the Lord our God, and his marvellous Loving-kindness—And let us keep and do those Statutes and Judgments, for this is our Wisdom & Understanding in the Sight of the Nations and People that are round about us.

And Oh that there was such a Heart in us, that we might fear the Lord, and keep all his Com­mandments always, that it might be well with us, and with our Children forever.