fuch Secrets, nor of keeping fo ftrict a Guard as appeared afterwards was neceffary. Discove ries were made by a Particular Hand of Heaven: Men who were thought capable of executing the worst Designs, could not bear the Horror that This gave them. Those who were appointed to be the Inftruments of our Ruin, proved the Means of our Prefervation: I fay, Our Prefervation, because we owe it to the Influence of that Sacred Life.

And now at last, after fo hard a Struggle, fuch a lengthned War, fo vaft a Confumption of Men and Treasure, we celebrate the happy Peace and Tranquility that we, and the greatest part of Europe · do now enjoy, through his means. Have we not reafon to conclude that This is the day which the Lord has made; that this is the Man whom he has made ftrong for himself, whom he has delighted to fet on his Throne? It is his doing, and it is wonderful in · our eyes.

The Characters of God's Care of his Affairs have: been no less Signal, than thofe relating to his Perfon. Good Seafons and favourable Winds have attended conftantly upon him. The critical Turns of thofe Winds that brought him firft hither, were fo amazing, that those who obferved them, can never reflect on it without a conftant freshness of Admiration. All the many Paffages that he and his Forces have fince that time made on the Seas, have been not only fuccefsful, but fmooth and quick.

On two great Occafions, Nature feemed to go out of its Course to cover us from Invafion. In the firft, the calmeft Month in the Year was a continued Storm,

till we were ready to make use of fairer Weather, and then we had it; and by a great variety of Circumftances, as happy to us as cross to our Enemies, we had the most glorious Day that ever the Channel faw; Beacons of a new form; Fires from the Sea carried the difmal Tidings to the adverfe Shores, and scatter. ed the Army lying ready to invade us. That feemed to put an end to all Dangers from that Element; we were restored to our Empire on this Sea, which recovered and established our then finking Reputa

tion.

We found at another time, a no lefs unufual reverfing of Seafons; we had a Winter that seemed to anticipate the Spring; the Wind stood all the while in the warm Corner, and broke the defigns of fending a great part of our Naval Strength from us. We little knew our danger, and that all this was ftopt by a watchful Interpofition, to cover us from a fecond Design of Invafion; we were uneafy to fee the Seafon fo obftinately good, fo contrary to our Intentions, and to what was to be expected at that time; but we afterwards had large opportunities to observe the kind Direction of Heaven that made the Seasons wait on us, and as it were confpire to break their -own Laws, rather than fuffer a Breach to be made upon Us.

Other favourable Circumftances fhewed us alfo how God delighted to maintain him on the Throne, under whofe Shadow we are all to fit fafe. Plenty at home made us eafy under all the Charge of the War; and while our Neighbours (for we have now no more any Enemies) were much preffed with 'even the extremities of Want, under thofe vaft Impofitions that lay on them, we had enough and to fpare;

to

to furnish the reft of the World, and to fupply that. great wafte of Treasure, which came back in fome Years fafter then it went out. And after all the unconceivable Expence of the War, with all the Loffes we made in it, yet if it had not been for the wicked Practifes of thole Corrupters of our Coin at home, with all the Train of mifchievous Confequences that have followed upon them, which was an Evil of our own growth, and that had no relation to the Affairs abroad, we had gone through it without feeling any uneafy preffure by it. But that we have been able to provide effectual Remedies to the one, while at the fame time we have fo gloriously maintained, and now fo happily finished the other, is a fecret Indication of the Power and Riches of the Nation, in this Reign, of which perhaps the most Sanguine could not have been convinced, if they had not feen it.

Add to all this, the noble Triumphs of Liberty... One of the Common Topicks of the Enemies of Pub. lick Liberty, is, That upon great occafions, the Divifions in Councils, and the length of Debates that do naturally arife in Free Affemblies, bring fuch a backwardness and flowness on their Deliberations, that the best Opportunities of acting are loft while they are confulting. Here the Publick Intereft was fo vifible, that a concurrence beyond all former Examples, has appeared in fupporting Undertakings that seemed above the Strength and Wealth of the Nation. Nor could fuch a Treasure have been raised by all the Efforts of Arbitrarinefs; for nothing but the Certainties of the Faith given by the Body of the Nation, could have created the Credit that was ne ceffary in fuch unufual Supplies. These went on

with that Unanimity and Heartinefs, that we have reafon to put this among the great Articles of that over-ruling Providence that has watched over us. If at any time infuperable Difficulties made the Publick Confultations go heavily, the Seafon was ftopt, the Courfe of Nature feem'd to ftand ftill, till we were ready for it. So wonderful a Conduct has appeared both at home and abroad, and in all the Elements, as if every thing had been fet at Work, either to do us Good, or at leaft to fhelter us from Evil.

I reckon not among the happy Inftances of God's Care of us, our being preferved from the reftlefs Attempts of fome wretched Incendiaries among our felves, thofe Betrayers of Religion and their Country. They are too inconfiderable, to be ranked among the Occafions for which we do now celebrate the Bleffings of Heaven. If their Power and Skill had been equal to their Malice, we fhould indeed have had great reafon to rejoice that we have been preferved from a Race of Men, whofe Tongues have been fet on Fire, while the Poyfon of Afps feemed to lie under their Lips: but the one has proved as contemptible, as the other was odious. They ought not to be mentioned in a time of rejoycing, in which, Objects that give Horror, ought to be kept out of fight; yet, how little reafon foever we may have either to value, or to love them, we ought ftill to pity them, and to pray for them, that if poffible, they may be recovered out of the Gall of Bitterness, and the Bond of Iniquity.

Let

Let us turn to Nobler Objects, and rejoice in the Glory of God, and in our own Happiness, while we see who is the Man whom God delights to honour : whom by a concurrence of many Providences he firft led to his Throne, and whom he has hitherto maintain'd on it by as many more: and has now given him as full an Establishment upon it, as Humane things are capable of. He has made his Enemies to be at Peace with him: and while the much greater half of Europe own him to be its Recoverer and Restorer, the reft do now unanimously call him that, which He is, Independent on all Foreign Acknowledgments, THE RIGHTFUL AND LAWFUL KING OF THESE REALMS.

And to make the Parallel to my Text run exactly, a much greater King, lying at a vafter Distance,leaves his Throne and Dominions in the midst of War, ftruck with the Fame, and amazed at the Actions of this Prince. Instead of a little Southern Queen, a mighty Northern Emperour, cover'd with Laurels, and us'd to Victories, refolving to raise his Nation, and enlarge his Empire, comes to learn the best Methods of doing it, and goes away full of Wonder, poffeffed with truer Notions of Government.

But while we humbly adore thofe Inftances of the good Pleasure of our God towards his Ansinted; let us alfo with the fame holy Gratitude obferve how he has fhewed that he loved us, as well as that he delighted in him, who now fits on the Throne. We are feparate from the Continent; and were cut off from the great Affairs of the World, till Navigation and Trade brought us into them,