any further for heaven, for it would be upon earth. But war and violence prefent a spectacle ftill more awful. How affecting is it to think, that the luft of domination fhould be fo violent and univerfal; that men fhould be fo rarely fatisfied with their own poffeffions and acquifitirons, or even with the benefit that would arife from mutual fervice, but fhould look upon the happiness and tranquillity of others as an obstruction to their own that, as if the as if the great law of nature were not enough "Duft thou art, and to

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duft thou shalt return," they fhould be fo fu riously set for the deftruction of each other! "Tis fhocking to think, fince the firft murder of Abel, by his brother Cain, what havock has been made of man by man in every age. What is it that fills the pages of hiftory, but the wars and contentions of princes and empires! What vaft num-bers has lawless ambition brought into the field, and delivered as a prey to the destructive sword! St.If we dwell a little upon the circumstances, they become deeply affecting. The mother bears a child with pain, rears him by the laborious attendance of many years, yet in the prime of life, in the vigour of health, and bloom of beauty, in a moment he is cut down by the dreadful instruments of death. Every battle of the warrior is with confufed noife, and garments rolled in blood. But the horror of the fcene is not confined to the field of slaughter; few go there unrelated, or fall unlamented. In every hoftile encounter,

what

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what must be the impreffion upon the relations of the deceased? The bodies of the dead can only be feen, and the cries of the dying heard, for a fingle day; but many days shall not put an end to the mourning of a parent for a beloved fon, the joy and support of his age, or of the widow and helpless orphan for a father taken away the fulness of health and vigour. ⠀⠀

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But, if this may be justly said of all wars between man and man, what shall we be able to fay that is fuitable to the abhorred scene of civil war between citizen and citizen? How deeply affecting is it that those who are the fame in complexion, the fame in blood, in language and in religion, fhould, notwithstanding, butcher one another with unrelenting rage, and glory in the deed! That men fhould lay wafte the fields of their fellow fubjects with whose provifion they themselves had been often fed, and confume with devouring fire thofe houses in which they had often found a hospitable shelter! These things are apt to overcome a weak mind with fear, or overwhelm it with forrow, and in the greatest number are apt to excite the highest indignation, and kindle up a fpirit of revenge. If this laft has no other tendency than to direct and invigorate the measures of felf-defence, I do not take upon me to blame it, on the contrary I call it neceffary and laudable.

But what I mean at this time to prove by the preceding reflections, and wish to impress on your minds,

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minds, is, the depravity of human nature. From whence come wars and fightings among you, says the apostle James * come they not bence, even of your lufts that war in your members? Men of lax and corrupt principles take great delight in fpeaking to the praise of human nature, and extolling its dignity, without diftinguishing what it was at its first creation, from what it is in its prefent fallen eftate. These fine fpeculations are very grateful to a worldly mind. They are alfo much more pernicious to uncautious and unthinking youth, than even the temptations to a diffolute and fenfual life, against which they are fortified by the dictates of natural conscience, and a fense of publick shame. But I appeal from thefe vifionary reafonings to the hiftory of all ages, and the inflexible teftimony of daily experience. Thefe will tell us what men have been in their practice, and from thence you may judge what they are by nature while unrenewed. If I am not much mistaken, a cool and candid attention either to the past history or present ftate of the world, but above all to the ravages of lawless power, ought to humble us in the duft. It fhould at once lead us to acknowledge the juft view given us in scripture of our loft state: to defire the happy influence of renewing grace, each for ourselves, and to long for the dominion of righteousness and peace, when men fhall beat their fwords into plough

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of perfons or nations, and it would be extreme

ly foolish for any to attempt it, either for increafing their own fecurity, or impeaching the juftice of the fupreme Ruler. Let us therefore neither forget the truth, nor go beyond it. His mercy fills the earth: he is also known by the judgment which he executeth. The wrath of man, in its most tempeftuous rage, fulfils his will and finally promotes the good of his church.

3. The wrath of man praises God, as he fets bounds to it, or reftrains it by his providence, and fometimes makes it evidently a means of promoting and illuftrating his glory,

There is no part of divine Providence in which a greater beauty and majefty appears, than when the almighty Ruler turns the counfels of wicked men into confufion, and makes them militate against themselves. If the pfalmift may be thought to have a view in this text to the truths illuftrated in the two former obfervations, there is no doubt at all that he had a particular view to this, as he fays in the latter part of the verfe, the remainder of wrath thou halt refrain. The fcripture abounds with inftances in which the defigns of oppreffors were either wholly disappointed, or in execution fell far fhort of the malice of their intentions, and in fome they turned out to the honour and happinefs of the perfons or the people whom they intended to destroy. We have an instance of

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Publick calamity, particularly the destroying fword, is fo awful that it cannot but have a powerful influence in leading men to confider the prefence and the power of God. It threatens them not only in themselves, but touches them in all that is dear to them, whether relations or poffeffions. The prophét Isaiah says, Yea, in the way of thy judgments, O Lord, have we waited for thee; for when thy judgments are in the earth the inhabitants of the world will learn righteoufnefs *. He confiders it as the most powerful means of alarming the fecure and fubduing the obftinate. Lord, when thy hand is lifted up they will not fee; but they shall fee, and be ashamed for their envy at the people: yea, the fire of thine enemies fhall devour them †. It is alfo fometimes represented as a symptom of a hopeless and irrecoverable ftate when publick calamities have no effect. Thus faith the prophet, O Lord, thou haft ftricken them, but they have not grieved; thou hast confumed them, but they have refused to receive correction: they have made their faces barder than a rock, they have refused to return t

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to fubmiffion and penitence. When he flew them then they fought him, and they returned and enquired early after God, and they remember

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• Ifa. xxvi. 8. 9. † v. Jer. v. 3.

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