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SERMON XLVI.

NATIONAL PROVIDENCES; OR DIVINE SUPERINTENDENCE IN NATIONAL AFFAIRS, MAINTAINED AND EXEMPLIFIED.

[Occasioned by the deliverance of this Kingdom from the Invasion attempted by the French in 1796; preached in the Chapel of Trinity College, Dublin, on the 1st of January, 1797; and in St. Peter's on the 8th of January; and preached in the same Church on January 15th, at the request of the parishioners in vestry assembled, and afterwards published at their desire.]

DANIEL, IV. 25, 27.

"The Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will; wherefore, O king, let my counsel be acceptable unto thee, and break off thy sins by righteousness, and thine iniquities by showing mercy to the poor, if it may be a lengthening of thy tranquillity."

SUCH was the awful warning which the prophet addressed to the haughty monarch of Babylon, whom long prosperity had elated with such impious pride, that he forgot that supreme Being, from whose favour alone he had derived that prosperity, and from whose protection alone he could hope for its continuance.

The events which have occurred since the hour when we so lately assembled in this sacred place, to celebrate the birth of our Redeemer, and which have almost irresistibly arrested the attention of all to whom I now address myself, have surely been of such a nature, as to impress on every serious mind the awful warning of the prophet.

The dangers of war which had so long remotely threatened us, seemed now ready to burst upon our heads, and involve in the issue of the doubtful conflict, every thing dear to the man, the patriot, and the Christian. At this trying hour every rank and age, and profession, amongst us, capable of bearing arms in their country's defence, have pressed forward with eager emulation to protect their property, their liberty, their religion.

The great and opulent have forsaken the blandishments of ease and luxury; the exchange, the senate, and the bar, have sent forth their busy numbers, to guard, in military array, the safety of the state; and even the youthful student has suspended his pursuit of literary knowledge and literary fame, to crowd round the standard of his country and his king, and defend the sacred cause of freedom and Christianity. Such conduct, my countrymen, at such a crisis, was worthy of minds such as yours. The approach of danger served not to damp, but to animate your courage-not to thin, but to multiply your bands; the approbation of your conscience, and the gratitude of your country, will reward and animate your exertions.

But amidst this busy stir of arms, amidst this eager application to such secondary means of safety, as human aid can supply, it cannot escape the religious mind, that the sure source of confidence, the sure prop and stay of public safety and public happiness, must ever be found in the protection of that all-powerful hand, who alone controls and decides the effect of all secondary means, without whose aid all human hope and help is vain; that God who "ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will," who dispenses life and death, peace and war, amongst the nations of the earth, "all whose works are truth, and his ways judgment, who is able to abase them who walk in pride, and punish them who tread the paths of iniquity.*

With this conviction deeply impressed upon my heart, I am anxious to avail myself of this occasion, so well adapted to strengthen that impression upon your hearts, my fellow-Christians; I am anxious to direct your attention to the perpetual superintendence of Divine Providence, as to that which controls all the vicissitudes of human life, and to rouse you to cultivate in yourselves and in others, that spirit of pious gratitude and Christian union, that watchful self-government and humble penitence, and that general and permanent reformation, which alone can draw down on your country the blessing of your God.

With such an intention only do I now address you.

I have

VOL. IV.

* Daniel, iv. 37.

2 M

ever been unwilling to advert to any political events from this place. Nothing is more unbecoming the ministers of God, than to give the least grounds of suspicion, that they would stoop to be the instruments of mean adulation on the one side, or factious abuse on the other; and it is scarcely possible to speak of political affairs without subjecting ourselves to such a suspicion. As little would I wish to aggravate the bitterness of hatred against our enemies, or conceal my regret, that we are yet compelled to call them enemies. No; the ministers of peace should never cease to inculcate the sacred duties of mercy and kindness and brotherly love; and never should Christians of every description cease to deplore, and as far as is possible, to appease, the miseries of war. Are our enemies violent and vindictive-it is our duty to protect ourselves indeed against their violence, but not to suffer ourselves to be infected with the contagion of that fury, the consequences of which we lament. Are they deluded, irreligious, and profane-it should be our anxious wish, that they might be enlightened and reformed, not exterminated or destroyed. With these sentiments, my fellowChristians, it is my present purpose to allude no further to political events, than may contribute to convince us of the superintending Providence of God. I will endeavour to direct your attention less to the guilt and impiety of our enemies, than to the licentiousness and irreligion which too fatally prevail among ourselves; that we may be led to atone for our past errors by deep and heartfelt repentance, and "break off our sins by righteousness, if it may be a lengthening of our tranquillity."

It is not, I trust, necessary to enter into any laboured detail of abstract arguments, before this enlightened and Christian assembly, in order to prove the existence of a superintending Providence. You never can doubt, that the Supreme Jehovah is all-wise to perceive, and all-powerful to direct every event, however minute or however important; whether it decides the happiness of the individual, or the welfare of the state. You cannot doubt, that this infinite wisdom and resistless power is directed by long-suffering mercy, combined with justice most strict, most impartial, most unchangeable. Can it then be supposed, that the Creator and Ruler of the Universe, without

whom "not a sparrow falleth to the ground," by whom "the very hairs of our head are numbered,"* will regard with indifference those events, which are most directly connected with the great system of His moral government, and which most decisively influence the conduct and happiness of the human raceeven the vicissitudes of national character and national prosperity? Oh no, my fellow-Christians, this cannot be. Attend to the deduction of the soundest reason, very recently stated on an occasion similar to this, which I will repeat in the words of its author,+ because I would not attempt to alter, what I cannot hope to improve. "If we reflect that man is not an unconnected being, but by his nature dependent on and influenced by his fellow-creatures; if we reflect that by this sympathetic sociability of original disposition, mankind are collected into communities, whose manners not only are the result of the manners of the individuals who compose them, but reciprocally, by that same sympathetic influence which gave them birth, modify the manners of each individual, these great masses of mankind will appear to us not as ideal persons, whose misconduct must experience its appropriate punishment, but as the instruments by which the great scheme of human improvement is to be promoted. Communities therefore considered as aggregates of individuals, mutually influencing the manners of each other, must be regarded as the moral instruments by which the purposes of our Creator are accomplished. And it is therefore reasonable to believe, that when any of these systems is so far corrupted, as to become unfit for the accomplishment of the purposes of wisdom and goodness, when it is become so far corrupted, that the mutual influences of its members can have no other effect, than to vitiate what is yet sound, and to render still more enormous the corruption of the rest, it is, I say, in such a case reasonable to believe, that this corrupted system shall be dissolved. From a consideration, therefore, of the nature of man, and the moral attributes of his Creator, we can deduce a satisfactory reason for the persuasion

Matthew, x. 29, 30.

Fast Sermon, preached in Trinity College, 9th March, 1796, by the Rev. George Miller, F.T. C.D.-pages 18, 19, 20.

that Providence will visibly chastise the profligacy of a corrupted nation."

Such, my fellow-Christians, are the conclusions of reason. They harmonize also with the clearest revelations of the Divine will, and the whole history of mankind. Peruse those prophecies, which foretel the fortunes of the various empires of the ancient world; and after having contemplated their exact accomplishment, question, if you can, the reality of a superintending Providence. Look round the world, and examine the present appearances and acknowledged facts, which are constantly appealed to in proof of such accomplishment, and judge whether you can deny the conclusiveness of the argument. Behold Nineveh and Babylon, Tyre and Sidon and Egypt,* which had enjoyed the highest prosperity, and abused that prosperity by the most base idolatry and the most foul corruption, despising the power of the true God, and delighting to oppress his people-Behold them now sunk in ruin, and continuing in that permanent degradation, which the prophets had denounced. Thus also, contemplate the unprecedented character and fortunes of the Arabian tribes, foretold before the birth of their great progenitor, Ishmael. View the fate of the four great nations, which successively swayed the empire of the world, distinctly sketched in the prophecies of Daniel. And above all, the history of the Jewish nation, for above three thousand years a living witness of the superintending providence of the great Jehovah, and still existing in a state unexampled in history. For near eighteen centuries dispersed through every nation, but united with none— still preserved distinct in its language, its manners, and its religion, to bear testimony to the genuineness of those prophecies, to which Christianity appeals, and accomplish the yet inscrutable purposes of that Jehovah whom they adore. When we have contemplated such a multitude of facts, foretold in a series of predictions, which reach from the creation of the world to its close; which have been hitherto exactly fulfilled, and are at this moment accomplishing almost within our sight; who can be blind enough to doubt, or hardy enough to despise the direct

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Bishop Newton's Dissertations on the Prophecies, vol. 1st.