rate enemy would suffer us to be at peace ; or whether if we were to make all the sacrifices that his ambition could dictate, he would not speedily find some fresh pretext for insult and exaction? No; we are unanimous in our conviction of the un- avoidableness of war ; unanimous too in our determination to maintain it with vigour, and to die rather than become the vassals of France : and this is a source of much peace and com- fort to us in the midst of our impending clangers. And to whom can we ascribe this astonishing unanimity, but to Him who " has all hearts in his hand, and turneth them whitherso- ever he will ? "]
2. Through his own immediate agency upon our minds —
[The Lord Jesus Christ is the Governor of the Universe ; and he makes his people to know, that their enemies derive all their power from his commission, the limits of zvhich commission they cannot exceed, and the effects of which power shall be overruled for good. These are sources of unspeakable peace to their souls. Suppose " the Assyrian to be come into our land," and to be bearing down all before him, our murmurs will be silenced by that reflection, " Is there evil in the city, and the Lord hath not done itd?" The enemy is no more than " the axe with which he hews, or the saw with which he saws6;" " It is the Lord; let him do what seemeth him goodf." Suppose the enemy to be vaunting like the blas- pheming Rabshakeh, and to be regarding the riches of the capital as a nest of eggs on which he is just going to lay his hands g; even then, if the plunder of the capital be not within his commission, " God will put a hook in his nose, and a bridle in his jaws, and will cause him to return to his own land" ashamed and confounded11. Suppose he be suffered en- tirely to prevail, yet if it be over-ruled for the good of immortal souls, and the glory of our God, no temporal trials, however great, can counterbalance the benefit derived from them. It was by sending his people to Babylon that he cured them of idolatry ; and if he may but cure this nation of its manifold im- pieties, all will be well. In these views then Christ will surely be the peace of his people, yea, he " will keep them in perfect peace, whose minds are stayed on him1."]
But these observations apply to us yet more forcibly, II. Under all spiritual troubles —
There is not in all the sacred volume one single prophecy that more clearly speaks of Christ than that
d Amos iii. 6. e Isai. x. 15. f 1 Sam. iii. 18.
e Isai. x. 14. h Isai. xxxvii. 33 — 35. J Isai. xxvi. 3.
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