weal, the whole body of fuch a council will be full of light, whereby they will certainly dif cover the things which belong to our peace. These things can never be hid, when a prince and people are thus in queft of them.

God forbid therefore, That this day of folemn humiliation should be made use of to flatter' princes with notions of arbitrary power, by drawing any conclufions from the ancient government of God's peculiar people, which may colour over modern tyranny.

God forbid! That the Roman imperial power in the hands of Claudius or Nero, should be owned as God's ministry, under which the apoftles of Chrift fuffered martyrdom. To entertain people with the melancholy thoughts of fetters and chains, which when laid upon them by ill princes, yet they muft not endeavour to remove under penalty of eternal damnation, tends only to exafperate human nature, and make way for fuch another day of humiliation as that we are now celebrating which, may divine goodness, for ever prevent! God forbid, that this day should be made use of to continue heats and animofities

:

* From the beginning of this paragraph, to the end of the fermon, there appears the masterly hand of Mr. Frenchard, the author's friend, who wrote this fhining conclufion.

8

among

among us, which ought long fince to have been buried in oblivion. Especially when the tragical scene of this day, was not then the act of the whole nation; and few fpectators of it, fcarce any actors in it, are now remaining.

But fince the condition of the greatest men' upon earth is fubject to such fatal catastrophes, as that was which this day brings to mind; I cannot but lament the unhappy fate of those princes who are born in purple, and bred in luxury; encompaffed with flatterers, and fo intoxicated with the gaudy ornaments of power, as to forget the end for which they were elevated, and made gods upon earth. They little confider that this greatness is fupported by the inheritance of the gentleman, the hazard of the merchant, and the fweat of the labourer; who readily contribute out of their small stock to fupport a government they themselves have fet up. Who are contented to part with their natural liberty to those who formerly (it may be) were their equals, for their common good and protection; which is the only end of go. A due reflection hereon would make them first of all adore the goodness of God whofe providence hath fo distinguished them, and alfo love and cherish that fociety' of men, who hath raifed them to fo high a ftation, and fubmitted themfelves and their

vernment.

fortunes,

fortunes, in a great meafure, to their difcretion. Then the world would fee the best men in the highest places, fenates in authority, magistrates in esteem, and the temple of virtue the only paffage to that of honour. Ambition and corruption will be out of countenance, and the world will triumph in an undifturbed felicity. The prince will be happy in the reverence and efteem of his people, and the people fafe in the generofity of the prince.

All this and more we may expect from his majesty's most happy reign, who was not (like others) nurfed up in flattery, but tafted early of the cup of affliction, that his greatness might be owing to his own courage, virtue and integrity, and not the uncertain gift of fortune. Wife by nature, improved by early adverfity, and confummated by long experience in all the paths of greatness; a prince loved and obeyed by his own fubjects, honoured by his allies, dreaded by his enemies, and will be admired by late pofterity.

Nor do I here infift upon his great performances in the art of war, in which other princes have had their fhare, and are often themselves the wretched trophies, erected upon the tears of miferable men. But in his early years; toreftore his native country, and fince that, the liberties of three most potent nations, are

glories

glories peculiar to himfelf, and cannot be equalled by the exploits of the most renowned chiefs, either of the Affyrian, Grecian, or Roman monarchs And to confummate all the felicity that can happen to mortal man, it hath been a particular honour reserved by providence for him alone, that as wherever he fet his foot, flavery fled before him like a phantom, fo in his dominions and under his protection, are almost all the remains of liberty now known in the world.

Not that I fpeak this, or any thing else I have here faid, for your information, (for I know from what honourable assembly I ought to receive inftruction) but as my text directed me, for your remembrance.