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most hurtful and deftructive, and to perfons the moft refractory and difobedient. He over-rules all his creatures and all their actions. Thus we are told, that fire, bail, fnow, vapour, and ftormy wind, fulfil bis word in the courfe of nature, and even fo the most impetuous and disorderly paffions of men, that are under no restraint from themselves, are yet perfectly fubject to the dominion of Jehovah. They carry his commiffion and obey his orders, they are limited and restrained by his authority, and they confpire with every thing elfe in promoting his glory. There is the greater need to take notice of this, as men are not in general fufficiently aware of the diftinction between the law of God and his purpofe. They are apt to fuppofe, that, as the temper of the finner is contrary to the one, fo the outrages of the finner are able to defeat the other; than which nothing can be more falfe. The truth is plainly afferted and nobly expreffed by the Pfalmift in the text. Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee, and the remainder of wrath fhalt thou reftrain.

This pfalm was evidently composed as a fong of praife for fome fignal victory obtained, which was at the fame time a remarkable deliverance from threatening danger. The author was one or other of the later prophets, and the occafion probably the unfuccefsful affault of Jerufalem by the army of Senacherib, king of Affyria, in the days of Hezekiah. Great was the infolence

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and boafting of his generals and fervants against the city of the living God, as may be seen in the thirty fixth chapter of Ifaiah. Yet it pleafed God to destroy their enemies, and by his own immediate interpofition, to grant them deliverance. Therefore the Pfalmift fays in the 5th and 6th verses of this pfalm, The ftout-hearted are fpoiled, they have flept their fleep and none of the men of might have found their hands. At thy rebuke, O God of Jacob, both the chariot and borse are caft into a dead fleep. After a few more remarks to the fame purpose he draws the inference, or makes the reflection in the text: Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee, and the remainder of wrath fhalt thou restrain. Which may be paraphrafed thus: The fury and injustice of oppreffors fhall bring in a tribute of praise to thee: the influence of thy righteous Providence shall be clearly difcerned: the countenance and support thou wilt give to thine own people shall be gloriously illuftrated thou fhalt fet the bounds which the boldeft cannot pass.

I am fenfible, my brethren, that the time and occafion of this Pfalm may feem to be; in one refpect, il fuited to the intereft and circumftances of this country at prefent. It was compofed after the victory was obtained, whereas we are but putting on the barnefs, and entering upon an important conteft, the length of which it is impoffible to forefee, and the iffue of which it will perhaps be thought presumption to fore

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tell. But as the truth, with respect to God's moral government, is the fame and unchangeable, and the iffue in the cafe of Senacherib's invafion did but lead the prophet to acknowledge it, our duty and intereft confpire in calling upon us to improve it. And I have chofen to infift upon it, on this day of folemn humiliation, as it will probably help us to a clear and explicit view of what should be the chief fubject of our prayers and endeavours, as well as the great object of our hope and truft, in our present fituation.

The truth, then, afferted in this text, which I propose to illustrate and improve, is-That all the disorderly paffions of men, whether expofing the innocent to private injury, or whether they are the arrows of divine judgment in public calamities, fhall in the end be to the praise of God. Or, to apply it more particularly to the present state of the American Colonies, and the plague of war, the ambition of mistaken princes, the cunning and cruelty of oppreffive and corrupt minifters, and even the inhumanity of brutal foldiers, however dreadful, fhall finally promote the glory of God. And in the mean time, while the ftorm continues, his mercy and kindnefs fhall appear in prescribing bounds to their rage and fury.

In difcourfing of the fubject, it is my inten tion, through the affiftance of Divine grace,

I. To

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I. To point out to you, in fome particulars, how the wrath of man praises God.

II. To apply thefe principles to our prefent fituation, by inferences of truth for your instruction and comfort, and by fuitable exhortations to duty in the important crifis.

I. In the firft place I am to point out to you in fome particulars, how the wrath of man praises God.

I fay in fome inftances, because it is far from being my purpose to mention or explain the whole. There is an unfearchable depth in the divine counsels which it is impoffible for us to penetrate. It is the duty of every good man to place the most unlimited confidence in divine wisdom, and to believe that those measures of Providence that are moft unintelligible to him, are yet planned with the fame skill, and directed to the fame great purposes, as others, the reason and tendency of which he can explain in the cleareft manner. But where revelation and experience enable us to difcover the wifdom, equity or mercy of divine Providence, nothing can be more delightful or profitable to a serious mind, and therefore I beg your attention to the following remarks.

1. In the first place, the wrath of man praifes God, as it is an example and illustration of di

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vine truth, and clearly points out the corruption of our nature, which is the foundation ftone of the doctrine of redemption.

Nothing can be more abfolutely neceffary to true religion, than a clear and full conviction of the finfulness of our nature and state. Without this, there can be neither repentance in the finner, nor humility in the believer. Without this, all that is faid in Scripture of the wisdom and mercy of God in providing a Saviour, is without force and without meaning. Juftly does our Saviour fay, The whole have no need of a phyfician, but they that are fick. I came not to call the righteous but finners to repentance. Thofe who are not fenfible that they are finners; will treat every exhortation to repentance, and every offer of mercy, with difdain or defiance.

But where can we have a more affecting view of the corruption of our nature than in the wrath of man, when exerting itself in oppreffion, cruelty, and blood? It must be owned, indeed, that this truth is abundantly manifest in times of the greatest tranquillity. Others may, if they pleafe, treat the corruption of our nature as a chimera. For my part, I fee it every where, and I feel it every day. All the diforders in human fociety, and the greatest part even of the unhappinefs we are expofed to, arifes from the envy, malice, covetoufnefs, and other lufts of men. If we and all around us were just what we ought to be in all respects, we fhould not need to go

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