Sovereign, to do what his counsel determined before to be done. Accordingly, when beyond the line marked out by this counsel, he had resolved upon the conquest of Judea and its capital, and vaunted as if he had already accomplished his purpose; his army was suddenly destroyed, and himself slain upon his return to his own land. Because thy rage against me, says God by his prophet, is come up into mine ears, I will put my hook in thy nose, and my bridle in thy lips, and turn thee back by the way by which thou camest.-He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there; by the way that he came, by the same shall he return, for I will defend this city to save it for my own sake, and for my servant David's sake*. And the pious christian, who views the dispensations of Providence in the light of scripture, will acknowledge the same over-ruling hand in every conquest and defeat, in every national change and revolution, that has happened since the world began.

He will be sensible that such events, how

* 2 Kings, chap. xix.

ever calamitous they may be, can never take place without wise and just reasons in the divine mind. He knows that when the Canaanites were exterminated, it was because their land was defiled, and the measure of their iniquities full*; that when destruction fell upon Tyre, that crowning city, whose merchants were princes, whose traffickers were the honourable of the earth; it was to stain the pride of all glory +; that when vengeance was threatened against Ninevah, it was for its wickedness which had ascended to heaven. From these and other innumerable instances he will collect, that public as well as private calamities have respect to moral evil, and that it is never wantonly, or out of mere dominion, that God afflicts or grieves the children of men.

The same divine records will help him to trace the conduct of Providence in the temporary triumph of wicked nations, by presenting them to his view as scourges for the punishment of other nations that are still

*Gen. xv. 16. and Lev. xviii. 24, 25.

more wicked; and doomed, after the ser

vice is performed, to be cast away or destroyed themselves. A few passages in proof and illustration of this point, which the reader may peruse when he is disposed and at leisure, I dismiss to the note below *;

*The Almighty is thus introduced speaking of Sennacherib above-named: "O Assyrian, the rod of mine anger. I will send him against an hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath. Howbeit he meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think so, but it is in his heart to destroy and cut off nations not a few. Wherefore it shall come to pass, that when the Lord hath performed his whole work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, I will punish the fruit of the stout heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory of his high looks." Isa. x. 5-12. A similar declaration is made respecting Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon: "Thus saith the Lord of hosts, because ye have not heard my words, behold I will send and take all the fainilies of the north, and Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon my servant, and will bring them against this land, and against all the nations round about, and will utterly destroy them.--And it shall come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans, and will make it perpetual desolations." Jer.

XXV. 8-12.

In another prophecy, a reason is assigned for Ne

fearing, lest I have already put his patience to a sufficient trial by my copious citation of scripture; for which, the impossibility of finding elsewhere those documents which came home to my present purpose, must be my apology.

From what we have briefly suggested upon this topic, and from the examples we have produced, it may appear, that just views of Providence are powerfully calcu

buchadnezzar's success against Egypt, which reflects a beautiful light on the equity of Providence in rewarding

even temporal services. "It came to pass," says the prophet Ezekiel, "in the seven and twentieth year, the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon caused his army to serve a great service against Tyrus: every head was made bald, and every shoulder was peeled: yet had he no wages nor his army for Tyrus, for the service he had served against it. Therefore thus saith the Lord God, Behold I will give the land of Egypt to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and he shall take her multitude, and take her spoil, and take her prey, and it shall be the wages for his army: I have given him the land of Egypt for his labour wherewith he served against it, because they wrought for me, saith the Lord God." Ezekiel xxix. 17-20.

lated to administer support to a man of piety under all reverses; under poverty and oppression, sickness and death. Even amidst the waste and desolation of his country, while he may bewail the wickedness or misconduct which brought on the catastrophe, he will find rest in the consideration, that it could not have taken place without the righteous disposal of the Almighty.

of

Let it be well observed, that it is only a good man, or, in other words, a man who is subdued to the government and grace God, to whom this support fully belongs, or who is fully capable of it; such a man only has ground for an entire confidence in the divine favour towards him, amidst all the disorders and troubles to which he is exposed; or is prepared to acquiesce in all the dispensations of heaven towards mankind in general. Others, as they approach to this character, may expect to share in the consolations annexed to it. To all but the obstinate rebel, who will neither submit to the laws of his Creator, nor listen to the