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II. I shall state some considerations, connected with the melancholy and deplorable event that gave occasion to our present assembling, which may shew that it should be considered as "the Lord's voice crying to the city :"

III. I shall in few words shew the outline of the scripture doctrine concerning rulers and their subjects; and (as I am speaking exclusively to subjects,) on the general duties which these latter are called to by the consideration of that doctrine: And

IV. Point out more particularly what I suppose "the voice of the Lord" to say to each of us, severally, by this afflictive catastrophe.

I. I proceed to explain the words of the text; making such remarks as may introduce, in a simple and obvious manner the other parts of our subject.

The chapter from which the text is selected opens thus: " Hear ye now what the Lord saith: "Arise, contend thou before the mountains, and "let the hills hear thy voice. Hear, O ye moun

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tains, the Lord's controversy, and ye strong "foundations of the earth; for the Lord hath a "controversy with his people, and he will plead "with Israel." And after some further expostulatory and instructive admonitions, the text is introduced: "The Lord's voice crieth unto the city, "and the man of wisdom shall see thy name: "Hear ye the rod, and who hath appointed it." "Hear ye the rod;" "the rod" then has "a 66 voice," and that voice is "the Lord's voice." Events felt and acknowledged as public calamities, and as opening the way to further calamities, or

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the apprehension of them, are evidently intended. Now the voluntary attention paid, by almost the whole nation, to this day of the interment of our greatly lamented and beloved Princess: the bells every where tolling, the shops shut up, the places of worship thronged, the pulpits hung with black, the raiment and even the countenances of the congregations; proclaim that her decease, and its attendant circumstances, are generally acknowledged and deeply felt as a public calamity, and suited in some degree to excite still further apprehensions.

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This public calamity is "the Lord's voice: it ought to be regarded as a rebuke and warning from him. Inquiries into the secondary causes which might be supposed to lead to it are no part of our concern. The voice of God is to be recog"Shall there be evil" (natural evil or affliction)" in the city, and the Lord hath not "done it?" "I form the light and create darkness: "I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do "all these things." 2

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This "voice of the Lord" is that of a crier or herald; one who loudly proclaims any thing, saying with a loud voice, as it were, "He that hath ears to hear, let him hear." Thus it "crieth to "the city;" that is, to every inhabitant of the land, "both high and low, rich and poor, one " with another."3 In this respect, however different in all other things, it is like the voice of Jonah in Nineveh ; "Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be destroyed." "So the people of Nineveh pro

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1 Am. iii. 6.

" Is. xlv. 7.

'Ps. xlix. 2.

“claimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the 66 greatest of them even to the least of them. For "word came to the king of Nineveh, and he arose "from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, "and covered himself with sackcloth and sat in "ashes: and he caused it to be proclaimed through Nineveh, by the decree of the king and his nobles, "-Let them turn every one from the evil of his 66 way, and from the violence that is in their hands; "who can tell, if God will turn, and repent, and "turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish "not?" 1 In like manner, the "Lord's voice "crieth," in the late mournful dispensation to this land and every inhabitant of it: and indeed without any authoritative proclamation, a large proportion of our population has gone as far, as to the external expression of sorrow and humiliation : and it is only to be desired and prayed for, that the permanent effects on their conduct, in all other respects, may correspond to these expressions.

"And the man of wisdom shall see thy name." Isaiah complains thus to the Lord concerning the people : "Let favour be shewed to the wicked, yet "will he not learn righteousness: in the land of up"rightness will he deal unjustly, and will not be"hold the majesty of the Lord. Lord when thy hand " is lifted up they will not see: but they shall see "and be ashamed."2 The interposition of God, both in their prosperity and in their calamities, was overlooked, wilfully or heedlessly overlooked; and the whole was ascribed, either to men, to second causes, or to good or ill fortune. But Micah observes, that

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this would by no means be the conduct of" the man of wisdom." True believers, pious persons are all of them, in a measure "men of wisdom :" yet some especially like the children of Issachar, "have "understanding of the times, to know what Israel

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ought to do."—" He that is called a prophet "was before time called a seer," a man that sees. He sees by immediate revelation what others do not see but the true minister of Christ, who is indeed" a scribe well instructed to the kingdom " of God," by studying, believing, and understanding the written words of prophets and apostles, the original seers of his church, become seers also, and watchmen, to make their report, and give warning and admonition. But, as the prophet of old complains that Israel's "watchmen are blind;" and our Lord that the teachers of the Jews were "blind guides;" it is not to be wondered at, though it is to be lamented, if the case be the same with some of the nominal ministers of later ages.

"The man of wisdom," however, whether a minister of religion or not, when "the Lord's voice "crieth unto the city," by any public distressing calamity, will in that calamity "see the name of "the Lord."-" The name of the Lord" especially denotes those attributes, or those mysteries of JEHOVAH, by which he is transcendently exalted above all creatures, and distinguished from all others that ever were "called God and worship"ped." "The name of the Lord is a strong tower : "the righteous runneth into it, and is safe."2 The omnipresence, the omnipotence, the infinite

' 1 Chr. xii. 32.

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Prov. xviii. 10.

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knowledge and wisdom, the perfect righteousness and faithfulness, goodness and abounding mercy of God, as revealed in his sacred word, and contemplated in the person and redemption of the promised Saviour, constitute this "name of the "Lord."-Moses said to God, "I beseech thee "shew me thy glory. And he said, I will make "all my goodness pass before thee; and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee; and "I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, " and will shew mercy on whom I will shew 1 mercy. ." Accordingly "the Lord passed by "before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, the "Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, " and abundant in goodness and truth; keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, and transgression, and sin; and that will by no "means clear the guilty."2 "The man of wis"dom" then sees, in those public calamities which are" the voice of the Lord crying to the city," the sovereign authority, the powerful, hand, and the awful justice of God; he discovers, in some degree, by the light of revelation, and the teaching of the Holy Spirit, his unerring wisdom, yea, his faithfulness, goodness, and mercy. He discerns that, "while clouds and darkness are round about "him, justice and judgment are the establishment " of his throne ;" and he is deeply convinced that the Lord hath some wise, and holy, and even merciful designs, in his most awful temporal judgments. "I know, O Lord, that all thy judgments are right, and that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted

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'Ex. xxxiii. 18, 19. Ex. xxxiv. 5-8.

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