do? The means are at hand; and there are always those who will flatter and encourage him in following his inclinations.

But suppose him manfully to resist these temptations; and now let us view that sea of troubles which threatens to overwhelm him in the discharge of his office. He must feel, day and night, the weight of that office, the various duties to be performed, and the difficulty, nay, almost impossibility of performing them all, in any tolerable manner. Deceived by others in matters concerning which he cannot inform himself, or see them with his own eyes, he finds he has done wrong when his whole intention was to do right; and perhaps bestowed his favours on worthlessness and profligacy, when he designed to reward virtue and merit. Exposed continually to the shock of parties contending, ostensibly, for the public good, but, in reality, for places of honour and emolument, he knows not, at length, whom to trust or employ; nor must he trust and employ those whom he would wish to trust and employ, but is often under the necessity of discarding men whom he loves, and taking to his bosom men whom he cannot love. In the mean time, a set of libertine, unprincipled writers in prose and verse are ready to exhibit him to his people as a monster, to misrepresent and traduce his best actions, to aggravate his errors, and treat him in a manner in which he himself would disdain to treat the beggar at his gate. Is a person thus circumstanced an object of envy? No;-if there be any bowels of love and

mercy, pity and pray for him, that God would grant him patience in suffering evil, and perseverance in doing good, to the end of his days.

This all of us may do; and this is all that most of us can do. By intercession with Heaven there is a communion opened of the greatest with the least; and to the prayers of the meanest and remotest subject of the empire, who knows him only by name when he prays for him, may the sovereign stand indebted for some part of the favour and prosperity vouchsafed him, who needs the prayers of his people, because the cares and the toils of business will often scarcely allow him time and composure of mind to pray for himself.

III. But it is not only a regard to our rulers which suggests reasons why we should pray for them. A regard to ourselves should operate no less. Our own interest is deeply concerned. "I exhort that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of "thanks, be made for kings, and for all that are in "authority"Why?" That we may lead a quiet "and peaceable life, in all godliness and honesty;" "a quiet and peaceable life," as citizens; " in all "godliness and honesty," as Christians.

"A quiet and peaceable life!"—What a blessing! involving in it all other blessings. Without quiet and peace, what can we pursue with pleasure, or enjoy with comfort? The Scriptures paint it under the lovely and affecting image of "every man sitting un"der his own vine, and under his own fig-tree""Sitting"-a posture of perfect ease and security"under his own vine"-something that he can call

his own, guarded and ensured to him by the laws and government of his country. Without laws, and government to carry those laws into execution, there would be nothing that he could call his own. His next neighbour, who had a mind for it and was stronger than he, must have it, and with it the life of the proprietor offering to defend it. The weak must be a prey to the strong, and the honest man be ruined by the villain, without redress or remedy. We of this nation (blessed be our God for it!) know not what it is to see government overturned by war from abroad, or insurrection at home. For years together have we been enabled to sit composedly in our habitations, and read accounts of what other countries have suffered in this way. Warm and comfortable within, we have heard the storm rage and howl around us without, waiting only for the return of a clear sky and the sun, to open our doors, and go forth again. This has rendered us insensible of the felicity we enjoy, because we have never been deprived of it; and men are ready in the wantonness of their folly, upon every trifling occasion, while serving the interests of themselves and their friends, to shake the foundations of the government under which they live, never reflecting on the calamities which must light upon all, were the fabric to fall in the contest. But the States of America can tell what they have suffered: the States of Holland can tell what they expected to suffer: the inhabitants in some parts of a neighbouring kingdom can inform us (in the midst of a civilized and enlightened age) what it is to have the flesh torn from their bones, or be

buried alive in the earth. Of these and other transactions we now sit and read (as was observed above) with perfect calmness. But suppose-God forbid the supposition should ever be realized; it is made that it never may be realized-Suppose, I say, they should come home to ourselves.

More than a century has passed, since this nation experienced the miseries of anarchy and confusion; when unhappy dissensions afforded opportunity for a crafty and ambitious upstart to murder the king, annihilate one house of parliament, and, having turned the members out of the other, walk unmolested to Whitehall with the key of it in his pocket. This was LIBERTY, planted by able and skilful hands, duly watered, and full blown! Great events from little causes! Who would have thought such an event could have happened, when the dispute first began? Who could believe it ever did happen, had we not incontrovertible evidence to prove it? Least of all, who would wish to see it, or any thing like it, happen again? Let not, then, the principles which produced it be adopted and disseminated amongst us: let not the governed be taught to esteem themselves superior to their governors; but let all be taught, as they fear "God," to "honour the king;" that is, to "honour the

king" because they "fear God," who has commanded them so to do. Our felicity depends on the safety of the prince, and the stability of government, which may fail, among other reasons, through our neglect to pray for them. Our ingratitude, ungodliness, and indevotion, as well as our other vices and crimes, may bring a blast on the designs of our rulers; and while we blame the

king and his ministers, the fault may be entirely our own. "Let supplications, prayers, intercessions, and

giving of thanks, be made, therefore, for kings, "and all that are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life," as citizens; and that we may lead it "in all godliness and honesty," as Christians.

For if the state be disturbed, the church cannot remain in peace; among the blessings of which this is ever to be esteemed the greatest, that religion is then best cultivated, and made to flourish in a land. Its ministers enjoy leisure and opportunity to celebrate its solemn offices, to meditate upon it, to write upon it, to preach, and to publish books upon it for the edification of their people. Of all this what can be done in the midst of war and tumults, when priests and people are flying before their common enemies, or engaged in civil commotions against each other? The Israelitish monarch, driven by rebellion from his capital, and in danger of his life, is very affecting upon this circumstance. The remembrance of better times occurred to his mind; of times when he went in procession with the multitude, and led his subjects into the house of God, with the voice of praise and thanksgiving, among such as kept holy day. A comparison of his former happy with his then afflicted condition, almost broke his heart. "When I remember these things, I pour out my "soul in me." But faith came to his assistance, and bade him not despair the return of those happy times, when he should again visit the temple, in like manner as before. Why art thou cast down, O my soul?