Glory be to GOD’s great name! the LORD has rebuked him; and that too at a time when we had little reason to expect such a blessing at GOD’s hands. My dear hearers, neither the present frame of my heart, nor the occasion of your late solemn meeting, lead me to give you a detail of our public vices. Though, alas! they are so many, so notorious, and withal of such a crimson-dye, that a gospel minister would not be altogether inexcusable, was he, even on such a joyful occasion, to lift up his voice like a trumpet, to shew the British nation their transgression, and the people of _America_ their sin. However, though I would not cast a dismal shade upon the pleasing picture the cause of our late rejoicings set before us; yet thus much may, and ought to be said, that as GOD has not dealt so bountifully with any people as with us, so no nation under heaven has dealt more ungratefully with Him. We have been like _Capernaum_, lifted up to heaven in privileges, and for the abuse of them, like her, have deserved to be thrust down into hell. How well soever it may be with us, in respect to our civil and ecclesiastical constitution, yet in regard to our morals, _Isaiah_’s description of the _Jewish_ polity is too applicable, “The whole head is sick, the whole heart is faint; from the crown of the head to the sole of our feet, we are full of wounds and bruises, and putrifying sores.” We have, _Jeshurun_-like, waxed fat and kicked. We have played the harlot against GOD, both in regard to principles and practices. “Our gold is become dim, and our fine gold changed.” We have crucified the Son of GOD afresh, and put him to an open shame. Nay, CHRIST has been wounded in the house of his friends. And every thing long ago seemed to threaten an immediate storm. But, O the long-suffering and goodness of GOD to us-ward! When all things seemed ripe for destruction, and matters were come to such a crisis, that GOD’s praying people began to think, that though _Noah_, _Daniel_ and _Job_, were living, they would only deliver their own souls; yet then in the midst of judgment the Most High remembered mercy, and when a popish enemy was breaking in upon us like a flood, the LORD himself graciously lifted up a standard.
This to me does not seem to be one of the most unfavourable circumstances which have attended this mighty deliverance; nor do I think you will look upon it as a circumstance altogether unworthy your observation. Had this cockatrice indeed been crushed in the egg, and the young Pretender driven back upon his first arrival, it would undoubtedly have been a great blessing. But not so great as that for which you lately assembled to give GOD thanks: for then his Majesty would not have had so good an opportunity of knowing his enemies, or trying his friends. The _British_ subjects would in a manner have lost the fairest occasion that ever offered to express their loyalty and gratitude to the rightful sovereign. _France_ would not have been so greatly humbled; nor such an effectual stop have been put, as we trust there now is, to any such further _Popish_ plot, to rob us of all that is near and dear to us. “Out of the eater therefore hath come forth meat, and out of the strong hath come forth sweetness.” The Pretender’s eldest son is suffered not only to land in the _North-West Highlands_ in _Scotland_, but in a little while he becomes a great band. This for a time is not believed, but treated as a thing altogether incredible. The friends of the government in those parts, not for want of loyalty, but of sufficient authority to take up arms, could not resist him. He is permitted to pass on with his terrible banditti, and, like the comet that was lately seen, spreads his baleful influences all around him. He is likewise permitted to gain a short-liv’d triumph by a victory over a body of our troops at _Preston-Pans_, and to take a temporary possession of the metropolis of _Scotland_. Of this he makes his boast, and informs the public, that “Providence had hitherto favoured him with wonderful success, led him in the way to victory, and to the capital of the antient kingdom, though he came without foreign aid.” Nay, he is further permitted to press into the very heart of _England_. But now the Almighty interposes. Hitherto he was to go, and no further. Here were his malicious designs to be staid. His troops of a sudden are driven back. Away they post to the _Highlands_, and there they are suffered not only to increase, but also to collect themselves into a large body, that having, as it were, what _Caligula_ once wished _Rome_ had, but one neck, they might be cut off with one blow.