with three hundred men Jonathan and his Armour-bearer by climbing up a Rock and coming suddenly on the back of the Philistines Camp struck them with such a terror as put their whole Army to flight King Asa with a much smaller number defeated that huge Ethiopian Army which consisted of a Million And how was Xerxes his mighty Army overthrown almost by a handful of Grecians And to come nearer our selves how was that formidable Fleet of the Spaniards which they presumptuously called invincible shatter'd and broken in pieces chiefly by the Winds and the Sea So many accidents are there especially in War whereby the Divine Providence doth sometimes interpose and give Victory to the weaker side And this hath been so apparent in all Ages that even the Heathen did always acknowledge in the affairs of War a special interposition of Fortune by which the wiser among them did understand the Divine Providence Plutarch speaking of the Romans says that Time and Fortune the very same with Solomon's Time and Chance here in the Text did lay the foundation of their Greatness by which he ascribes their success to a remarkable Providence of God concurring with several happy Opportunities And Livy their great Historian hath this remarkable Observation That in all human affairs especially in matters of War Fortune hath a mighty stroke And again No where says he is the event less answerable to expectation than in War and therefore nothing is so slight and inconsiderable which may not turn the Scales in a great matter And Caesar himself who was perhaps the most skilful and prosperous Warriour that ever was makes the same acknowledgment As in all other things says he so particularly in War Fortune hath a huge sway And Plutarch observes That there was no Temple at Rome dedicated to Wisdom or Valour but a most magnificent and stately one to Fortune signifying hereby that they did ascribe their success infinitely more to the Providence of God than to their own Courage and Conduct I proceed now in the Second place to give some reason and account of this Why the Providence of God doth sometimes thus interpose to hinder and defeat the most probable designs of men To bring men to an acknowledgment of his Providence and of their dependence upon Him and subordination to Him and that He is the great Governour of the World and rules in the Kingdoms of men and that all the inhabitants of the Earth are as nothing to Him and the power of Second Causes inconsiderable That He doth according to his will in the Armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth and none may stay his hand or say unto him what dost thou God hath so order'd things in the administration of the affairs of the World as to encourage the use of means and yet so as to keep men in a continual dependence upon him for the efficacy and success of them To encourage Industry and Prudence God generally permits things to their natural course and to fall out according to the power and probability of second Causes But then lest men should cast off Religion and deny the God that is above lest they should trust in their sword and their bowe and say the Lord hath not done this lest men should look upon themselves as the Creators and framers of their own fortune and when they do but a little outstrip others in wisdom or power in the skill and conduct of humane affairs they should grow proud and presumptuous God is pleased sometimes more remarkably to interpose to hide pride from man as the expression is in Job to check the haughtiness and insolence of mens spirits and to keep them within the bounds of modesty and humility to make us to know that we are but men and that the reins of the World are not in our hands but that there is One above who sways and governs all things here below And indeed if we should suppose in the first frame of things which we call Nature an immutable Order to be fix'd and all things to go on in a constant course according to the power and force of second Causes without any interposition of Providence to stop or alter that course upon any occasion In this case the foundation of a great part of Religion but especially of Prayer to God would be quite taken away Upon this Supposition it would be the vainest thing in the World to pray to God for the good success of our undertakings or to acknowledge Him as the Author of it For if God do only look on and permit all things to proceed in a settled and establish'd course then instead of praying to God we ought to ply the means and to make the best provision and preparation we can for the effecting of what we desire and to rely upon that without taking God at all into our counsel and consideration For all application to God by Prayer doth evidently suppose that the Providence of God does frequently interpose to over-rule events besides and beyond the natural and ordinary course of things and to steer them to a quite different Point from that to which in human probability they seem'd to tend So that it is every whit as necessary to Religion to believe the Providence of God and that He governs the World and does when He pleases interpose in the affairs of it as that He made it at first I come now in the Third and last place to make some Inferences suitable to the Occasion of this Day from what hath been said upon this Argument And they shall be these First From hence we may learn not to account Religion and time spent in the Service of God and in Prayer to Him for his blessing upon our endeavours to be any hindrance to our affairs For after we have done all we can the event is still in Gods hand and rests upon the disposal of his Providence And did men firmly believe this they would not neglect the duty of Prayer and behave themselves so carelesly and unconcernedly and irreverently in it as we see too many do they would not look upon every hour that is spent in Devotion as lost from their business If men would but take a view of what happen'd to them in the course of a long Life I believe most of us would see reason to acknowledge that our prosperity and success in any kind hath depended more upon happy opportunities upon undesign'd and unexpected occurrences than upon our own prudent forecast and conduct And if this were well consider'd by us we should not methinks be so apt to leave God out of our counsels and undertakings as if he were a meer Name and Cypher in the World It is I am sure the advice of one that was much wiser and more experienc'd than any of us will pretend to be I mean Solomon Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and leane not to thine own understanding In all thy ways acknowledge
to be the Cause of such extraordinary events but will obstinately impute that to blind Necessity or Chance which hath such plain characters upon it of a Divine Power and Wisdom I might be large upon every one of these Instances in the Text and illustrate them by pat and lively Examples both out of Scripture and other Histories But I shall briefly pass over all of them but the second the battel is not to the strong The race is not to the swift If we understand this literally it is obvious to every man to imagine a great many accidents in a Race which may snatch Victory from the swiftest runner If we understand it as the Chaldee Paraphrase does with relation to War that the swiftest does not always overcome or escape in the day of Battel of this Asahel is an eminent Instance who though he was as the Scripture tells us light of foot as a wild Roe yet did he not escape the spear of Abner It seems that among the Ancients swiftness was look'd upon as a great qualification in a Warriour both because it serves for a sudden assault and onset and likewise for that which in civility we call a nimble retreat And therefore David in his Poetical Lamentation over those two great Captains Saul and Jonathan takes particular notice of this warlike quality of theirs They were says he swifter than Eagles stronger than Lyons And the constant Character which Homer gives of Achilles one of his principal Hero's is that he was swift of foot The Poet feigns of him that by some charm or gift of the Gods he was invulnerable in all parts of his body except his heel And that was the part to which he trusted and in that he received his mortal wound The wise Poet hereby instructing us that many times our greatest danger lies there where we place our chief confidence and safety Nor yet bread to the wise or to the learned The poverty of Poets is Proverbial and there are frequent instances in History of eminently learned persons that have been reduced to great straits and necessities Nor yet riches to men of understanding By which whether we understand men of great parts or of great diligence and industry it is obvious to every mans observation that an ordinary capacity and understanding does usually lie more level to the business of a common Trade and Profession than more refin'd and elevated parts which lie rather for speculation than practice and are better fitted for the pleasure and ornament of conversation than for the toil and drudgery of business As a fine Razor is admirable for cutting hairs but the dull Hatchet much more proper for hewing a hard and knotty piece of timber And even when Parts and Industry meet together they are many times less successful in the raising of a great Estate than men of much lower and slower understandings because these are apt to admire riches which is a great spur to industry and because they are perpetually intent upon one thing and mind but one business from which their thoughts never straggle into vain and useless enquiries after knowledge or news or publick affairs all which being foreign to their business they leave to those who are as they are wont to say of them in scorn more curious and too wise to be rich Nor yet favour to men of skill All History is full of Instances of the casual advancement of men to great favour and honour when others who have made it their serious study and business have fallen short of it I could give a famous Example in this kind of the manifold and manifest disappointment of a whole Order of men the slyest and most subtile in their generation of all the children of this World the most politically instituted and the best studyed and skill'd in the tempers and interests of men the most pragmatical and cunning to insinuate themselves into the Intrigues of Courts and great Families and who by long experience and an universal intelligence and communicated observations have reduced humane affairs at least as they think to a certain Art and Method and to the most steddy Rules that such contingent things are capable of I believe you all guess before-hand whom I mean even the honest Jesuits And yet these men of so much art and skill have met with as many checks and disappointments as any sort of men ever did They have been discountenanc'd by almost all Princes and States and one time or other banish'd out of most of the Courts and Countreys of Europe And it is no small argument of the Divine Providence that so much cunning hath met with so little countenance and success and hath been so often so grosly infatuated and their counsels turn'd into foolishness But I promis'd only to mention these and to insist upon the second Instance in the Text I return'd and saw under the Sun that the battel is not to the strong to the Gibborim the Gyants for so the Hebrew word signifies in which Solomon might possibly have respect to the history of the Israelites subduing the Canaanites a People of great strength and stature among whom were the Gyants the sons of Anak or more probably to the famous encounter of his Father David with the great Goliah But however that be the Scripture is full of Examples to this purpose that when the Providence of God is pleased to interpose in favour of any side it becomes victorious according to the saying of King Asa in his prayer to God it is nothing with thee to help whether with many or with those that have no power Sometimes God hath defeated great Armies by plain and apparent Miracles Such was the drowning of Pharaoh and his Host in the Red Sea and the Stars fighting in their courses against Sisera by which Poetical expression I suppose is meant Sisera's being remarkably defeated by a visible hand from Heaven And such was the destruction of the proud King of Assyria's Army by an Angel who slew an hundred and fourscoure and five thousand of them in one night Sometimes God does this by more humane ways by striking mighty Armies with a Panick and unaccountable fear and sometimes by putting extraordinary spirits and courage into the weaker side so that an hundred shall chase a thousand and a thousand shall put ten thousand to flight This made David so frequently to acknowledg the Providence of God especially in the affairs of War There is no King saved by the multitude of an Host neither is a mighty man delivered by much strength And again I will not trust in my bowe neither shall my sword save me And Solomon confirms the same observation There is no wisdom says he nor understanding nor counsel against the Lord. The horse is prepared against the day of battel but safety or as some Translations render it Victory is of the Lord. Gideon by a very odd stratagem of Lamps and Pitchers defeated a very numerous Army only
pleas'd to give a remarkable check to great Power and Violence and to One that vainly gives out himself not unequal to the whole World by very weak and conttemptible means and as the Apostle elegantly expresseth it by the things which are not to bring to nought the things that are And to say to Him as God once did to the proud King of Assyria Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed and against whom hast thou exalted thy voice and lifted up thine eyes on high even against the Holy one of Israel Hast thou not heard long ago that I have done it and of ancient times that I have formed it Now have I brought it to pass that thou shouldest be to lay wast defenced Cities into ruinous heaps Therefore their Inhabitants were of small power they were dismayed and confounded c. But I know thy abode and thy going out and thy coming in and thy rage against me Because thy rage against me and thy tumult is come up into mine ears therefore will I put my hook into thy nose and my bridle into thy lips and I will turn thee back by the way by which thou camest The zeal of the Lord of Hosts shall do this But more especially in vindication of his oppressed Truth and Religion and in the great and signal Deliverances of his Church and People God is wont to take the conduct of affairs into his own hands and not to proceed by humane rules and measures He then bids second Causes to stand by that his own Arm may be seen and his Salvation may appear He raiseth the spirits of men above their natural pitch and giveth power to the faint and to them that have no might he increaseth strength as the Prophet expresseth it Thus hath the Providence of God very visibly appear'd in our late Deliverance in such a manner as I know not whether He ever did for any other Nation except the People of Israel when He delivered them from the House of Bondage by so mighty a hand and so outstretched an arm And yet too many among us I speak it this day to our shame do not seem to have the least sense of this great Deliverance or of the hand of God which was so visible in it but like the Children of Israel when they were brought out of Egypt we are full of murmurings and discontent against God the Author and his Servant the happy Instrument under God of this our Deliverance What the Prophet sayes of that People may I fear be too justly apply'd to us Let favour be shewn to the wicked yet will he not learn righteousness in the Land of uprightness he will deal unjustly and will not behold the Majesty of the Lord Lord When thy hand is lifted up they will not see but they shall see and be ashamed And I hope I may add that which follows in the next verse Lord thou wilt ordain peace for us for thou also hast wrought all our works for us What God hath already done for our deliverance is I hope an earnest that He will carry it on to a perfect peace and settlement and this notwithstanding our high provocations and horrible ingratitude to the God of our Life and of our Salvation And when ever the Providence of God thinks fit thus to interpose in humane affairs the race is not to the swift nor the battel to the strong For which reason their Majesties in their great Piety and Wisdom and from a just sense of the Providence of Almighty God which rules in the Kingdoms of men have thought fit to set apart this Day for solemn repentance and humiliation That the many and heinous Sins which we in this Nation have been and still are guilty of and which are of all other our greatest and most dangerous Enemies may not separate between God and us and hinder good things from us and cover us with confusion in the day of our danger and distress And likewise earnestly to implore the favour and blessing of Almighty God upon their Majesties Forces and Preparations by Sea an Land And more particularly for the preservation of his Majesties sacred Person upon whom so much depends and who is contented again to hazard Himself to save us To conclude There is no such way to engage the Providence of God for us as by real Repentance and Reformation and by doing all we can in our several Places from the highest to the lowest by the provision of wise and effectual Laws for the discountenancing and suppressing of Profaneness and Vice and by the careful and due execution of them and by the more kindly and powerful influence of a good Example to retrieve the ancient Piety and Virtue of the Nation For without this what ever we may think of the firmness of our present settlement we cannot long be upon good terms with Almighty God upon whose favour depends the prosperity and stability of the present and future Times I have but one thing more to mind you of and that is to stir up your charity towards the poor which is likewise a great part of the Duty of this Day and which ought alwayes to accompany our Prayers and Fastings Thy Prayers and thine Almes saith the Angel to Cornelius are come up before God And therefore if we desire that our Prayers should reach Heaven and receive a gracious answer from God we must send up our Almes along with them And instead of all other arguments to this purpose I shall only recite to you the plain and persuasive words of God Himself in which He declares what kind of Fast is acceptable to Him Is it such a Fast as I have chosen a Day for a man to afflict his soul Is it to bow down his head as a bullrush to spread sackcloth and ashes under him Wilt thou call this a Fast and an acceptable Day to the Lord Is not this the Fast that I have chosen To loose the bands of wickedness and to undo the heavy burthens and to let the oppressed go free and that ye break every yoke Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thine house when thou seest the naked that thou cover him and that thou hide not thy self from thine own flesh Then shall thy light break forth as the morning and thy salvation shall spring forth speedily thy righteousnes or thine Alms shall go before thee and the glory of the Lord shall be thy rere-ward Then shalt thou call and I will answer thee thou shalt cry and He shall say here I am Now to Him that sitteth upon the Throne and to the Lamb that was slain To God even our Father and to our Lord Jesus Christ the first begotten from the dead and the Prince of the Kings of the earth Unto Him who hath loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood and hath made us Kings and Priests unto God and his Father To Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever Amen And the God of Peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus that great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the everlasting Covenant make you perfect in every good work to do his Will working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ to whom be glory for ever and ever Amen FINIS Books Published by the Reverend Dr. Tillotson Dean of St. Pauls THirty Sermons and Discourses upon several Occasions in three Volumes in Octavo The Rule of Faith or an Answer to the Treatise of Mr. J. Serjeant by Dr. Tillotson To which is adjoyned A Reply to Mr. J. S. his third Appendix c. by Edw. Stillingfleet D. D. late Dean of St. Paul's now the Right Reverend Bishop of Worcester Octavo A Discourse against Transubstantiation in 80. Price 3d. A Persuasive to frequent Communion in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper in 80. Price 3d. A Sermon Preached at Lincolns-Inn-Chappel on the 31st of January 1688. being appointed for a Publick Thanksgiving to Almighty God for having made His Highness the Prince of Orange the Glorious Instrment of the great Deliverance of this Kingdom from Popery and Arbitrary Power 4to A Sermon Preached before the Queen at Whitehall 4to A Sermon Preached before the King and Queen at Hampton-Court 4to A Sermon Preached before the Queen March 9th Printed for B. Aylmer and W. Rogers A Practical Discourse concerning Death by VVilliam Sherlock D. D. Master of the Temple The Third Edition 80. Printed for VV. Rogers â— Chr. 14. 11. Psal. 33. 16. Psal. 44. 6. Prov. 21. 30 31. II. III. Prov. 3. 5 6. Deut. 23. 9. Isa. 37. 23 26 27 28 29 32. Isa. 26. 10 11. Isai. 58. 5 6 c.