SERMON VÍ. 2 COR. i. 9, 10. But we had the Sentence of Death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourfelves, but in God which raifeth the Dead: Who delivered us from jo great a Death, and doth deliver; in whom we truft, that he will yet deliver us. UR gracious Sovereign having appointed, of his own mere Motion and Perfonal Piety, a folemn Acknowledgment to Heaven, for our late Victory over the Rebels, to be inserted in the Prayers of this Day, permit me, as far as I am able, to be a Helper of your Joy * on that happy Occafion. And may God effectually dispose us all to rejoice before Him † in fo wife and religious a Manner, as may lay a fure Foundation for his rejoicing over Us to Verse 24. + Deut. xii. 12. do do us Good*; for his going on to comfort us again, after the Time that he hath afflicted Us, the Years wherein we have fuffered Adverfity . I hope it may promote this Blessed End, if we confider our Condition in the fame Views in which the Text places before us that of the Apostle St. Paul, comprehending an Account, I. Of his Danger: A great Death, of which he had the Sentence within himself. II. Of his Defender from it: God, who had delivered, and did ftill deliver him. III. Of the Reasons, for which he was firft permitted to fall into this Danger, then brought out of it: that he might not trust in Himfelf, but might trust in God, which raifeth the Dead: as accordingly he declares he doth, for Deliverances yet future. 1. His Danger: A great Death, of which be had the Sentence within himself. Death, being the Extremity of temporal Sufferings, in the Hebrew Idiom, which expreffes every thing ftrongly, fignifies any very dreadful Evil or Hazard. Thus Pharaoh, on the Plague of Locufts, begs of Mofes: Entreat the Lord your + Pfalm xc. 15. * Jer. xxxii. 41. God, God, that he may take away from me this Death only *. But more especially Hazard of Life goes under that Name. Whence David speaks of himself, as counted with them that go down into the Pit; free among the Dead, like the Slain that lie in the Grave . Now St. Paul, †. to use his own Phrafe towards the latter End of this Epiftle, had been in Deaths often ‡. And therefore the Term, fo great a Death, must denote, that on the Occafion, to which he refers, his Peril was imminent, peculiarly terrible, and, humanly fpeaking, unavoidable. His own Words are, we were pressed out of measure, above Strength, infomuch that we defpaired even of Life §. Farther Particulars cannot now be difcovered, excepting one, which he adds, of fmall Confequence to Us, that this Trouble came to him in Afia. But by his Manner of notifying it, and the Warmth of his Description, it must have been recent, fince he wrote the former Epiftle. How lately we have been in like Distress, you all know. How great a Death we must have fuffered, had our Enemies prevailed; how total a Destruction of every thing valu * Exodus x. 17. + Pfalm Ixxxviii. 4, 5. able able to us on Earth, that can be destroyed by Man; I endeavoured to fhew you at the very Beginning of their Attempt: and the whole Body of the Nation, God be thanked, have expreffed the strongest Detestation of it. May neither the Horror of the impending Ruin, nor the frightful Probability there was of its overwhelming us, ever be forgot. Recollect, I entreat you, what your fucceffive Apprehenfions have been for many Months past: on the early and intire, and easy Defeat of our Forces by the Rebels; on the defenceless Condition in which the Island then was; on their paffing afterwards, unhurt, by two Armies pofted to intercept them, and approaching towards this Capital; on the Profpect of powerful Affistance to them from abroad; on the credible, though happily false, Intelligence of our being actually invaded; on the fafe Retreat of our domeftic Enemies into the North, to join, as it was affirmed and believed, with foreign Succours there; on our fecond Disappointment in Battle, a fatal one it might have proved; on the continual Dangers, to which that heroic Prince was expofed, whose Presence and Conduct, and Courage and Activity, were fo effentially neceffary for animating our difpirited Troops; 4 Troops; on the reaffembling and Succeffes of our Foes, after a feeming Defpondency and Difperfion; on the Largeness of their Numbers, the Advantages of their Situation; and laftly, on the strong Report of what was but too poffible, a complete Victory obtained by them, when indeed one had been obtained over them, of which we were ignorant. Had we not often, during this Period, the Sentence of Death within ourselves? Were we not troubled on every Side; without were Fightings, within were Fears *; Mens Hearts failing them for Fear, and for looking after those Things which were coming on the Earth †? And had we been asked, at fome Junctures efpecially, as the Prophet was, in Language akin to that of the Text, Can thefe dry Bones live? Can this exhausted Nation rise up again, and shake off the Preffures, from every Quarter, under which it labours? What other Reply, at best, could we have made, than this? O Lord God, thou knoweft. For furely the wifest of Men did not know: nor could the braveft answer for the Event, after it had been fo frequently * 2 Cor. vii. 5. + Luke xxi. 26. L contrary |