Secondly, HERE's Security and Honour to the beft of Subjects, Every One that fwears by him fhall Glory. And,

Thirdly, HERE's that which is of Abfolute Neceffity to the other two: A Righteous Juftice upon all thofe that are Enemies to the Conftitution, The mouth of them that Speak Lyes fhall be stopped.

THESE are the Parts of the Text, and These the Heads of that Method that I fhall Obferve in a Difcourfe upon it. I cannot promife my self time enough to make a diftinct Application of what you may hear, or to fhow you what a Refemblance there is betwixt our Concerns and David's; but fhall endeavour to lead you into thofe Reflections as I go along, weav ing our Story into his,

I. I begin with That Happinefs and Glory of a Right Government which relates to the Perfon of the Ruler: The King fhall rejoyce in GOD. You will here confider,

1st. Who it is that he means by the King'; and,

2dly. What is fignified by his rejoycing in God.

1. Tho' he hath given us only the Office and not the Name of the Perfon he fpoke of, yet it is eafie enough to fuppofe who it is that he calls the King. Not Saul or any of his Royal Line, but David himself. That which makes the Expreffion a little difficult is, Why he fhould take the Title before he got the Throne. If this Pfalm was given out in the Days when he penn'd it; if he fuffered it to go abroad for the Comfort and Establishment of thofe who had fet their hope in God, and favoured his Righteous Caufe, it would lay him open to more Danger. They that were against the Succeffion would inflame the Difference betwixt the Court and Him. If it raifed the Envy of Sul to hey be is ammended as a General, it must push him a

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great deal further into the Quarrel, to read a Pfalm where he calls himself a King. There's no doubt of it, but this Divine Compofure would at that time be reprefented as a Seditious Paper, and it is not the only Inftance where the Spirit of God hath been thought to speak Treason.

BUT thefe are poor and little Things with a Soul that lives in Heaven. David, whofe Mind had lock'd itself in the Promife and Power of God, was not to have his Joys intangled by Forms of Speech : He that had told him of a Throne, taught him how to fpeak of it before-hand: He had the Phrase where he had the Title. GOD had rejected Saul from being King over Ifrael, and had given the Government to David; and tho' this happened feveral Years before the Change was brought about; yet it is a Glory be Rom. iv. longing to the Divine Nature, to call Things which are not as tho' they were: And it is an Argument of this good Man's Faith that he hath no Diffidence of the Great Event, tho' his Cafe was fo unhappy now; when he is hiding or flying from the Force of an Army; when he is begging for Bread whilft he lived in that lofe and dangerous Way, the Promife could lead his Eyes thro' all the Gloom of Life to an Escape, Pf. xxvii. to a Throne, to an Empire. I had fainted, unless I had believed to fee the Goodness of the Lord in the Land of the Living.

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HE could not mean Saul, when he faid, The King fhall rejoyce in the Lord; that was far from being true of him; a Man hurried and plagued with an Evil Spirit, whofe Envy eat out his Peace, and deftroyed the very Form of Religion; who lived in an open Neg Ject of Worship, in a plain Defiance of God, and a profeffed Cruelty to his People; fuch a One must be uncapable of the Joy here fpoken of. Nor had he any Profpects of Happinefs for Saul: He rather expected his Ruin, as he faith, at the Time that he fpared him, The Lord avenge me of thee, and the Day fhall come xxiv, 12. when he fhall go down to the Battle and die. He knew xxyi, 10. that GOD had rent the Kingdom from him ; ad as the Ch. xv.28, Strength of Ifrael could not repent, fo he v

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baffled. The fame Perfections that made it impoffible that a Change fhould come from Himself, were an Affurance that it fhould never be brought on by the Power of Another. He saw that God only held off his Vengeance from that wretched Monarch, till he had fill'd up his Iniquity; but as to Joy in the Lord, he had no Lot or Portion in that Matter, being plainly in the Gall of Bitterness, and the Bond of Iniquity.

YOU may judge by this, how widely thofe People talk from the Language of Scripture, who tell us of Sacred Perfons and Titles; as if the One might not be touched, nor the Other affumed. 'Tis true, Saul is fpared, because he was the Lord's anointed; but you muft not suppose that this fignifies no more than the Vial of Oyl poured upon his Head, and that this makes his Dignity indefeasible, because at that Time David was as much Anointed as he ; and therefore it is plain, either that this Ceremony of itself did not give the Claim; or if it did, that there might be a Forfeiture, Or, Thirdly, That it was poffible two Perfons might have it at the fame Time. Now the laft Opinion is what all Sides reckon foolish, and therefore the former must be true. If the Oyl made the King, David was fo a long while before he wore the Crown; bur it's plain from his Cafe, that it did not make the Claim immediate, as it is evident from Saul's, that it did not make it unalienable. It will farther appear who is the King that he here fpeaks of, from the fecond Thing to be obferved: And that is,

2. THE happy State of Mind he fhould be in: The King fhall rejoyce in the Lord. Where you have,

First, THE Affection that he would use, and that is Joy.

Secondly, THE Object upon which it must be employ'd, and that is the Lord.

1. AS to the Temper or Paffion of the Soul by which is diftinguifhed, it is the Nobleft that our

Nature

Nature can feel. Every One carries along with him in his Notions of a King, an Opinion that he is great to Others, but it does not always happen that he is cafie to Himself. Empire and Joy may lie far asunder. The Cares that hang about a Throne leave very little room for his Affection. Rejoycing in the Lord includes a great deal more than a Succefs in what he was aiming at. It is poffible he might be a King to his People, and a Slave to Himfelf: But the Bleffing defigned in my Text takes into it an Eafinefs in the manner of his coming to the Government, and a chearful Spirit that run thro' all the Administration. That God would bow the Hearts of the People to him, and make him their Darling before he was their Sovereign. That there fhould be a general Submillion either to the Clemency of his Sceptre, or to the Reach of his Sword. This affluence of the Tribes; This thorough difperfion of thofe that fet up for Him who was the Pretender then, is what David admires in the 18th Pfalm, That was written as he telleth us in the Title to it, when the Lord had delivered him from the Hand of all his Enemies, and from the Hand of Saul: And the Way how he came by this, was pushing home in feveral Battels. I purfued mine Enemies and overtook them: Neither did I turn again till they were confumed. I have wounded them that they were not able to rife. They are fallen under my Feet, far theu baf girded me with Strength to the Battel, thou hast fubdued thefe under me that refe up against me. He understood no Compofitions with them. They acted then upon the Principle of Hereditary Right, to fupport the Pretenfions of the late King's Son, but as he knew that foolish Notion was like to embroil the Publick, fo he improved the Bleffing that followed his Ver. 40, Arms. Thou haft given me the Necks of mine Enemies, that I might destroy them that hate me ; then did I beat them as fmall as Duft before the Wind, I did caft them out as Dirt in the Streets: Thou hast delivered me from the Strivings of the People. You fee by this, the Method in which he proceeded; but it will lead you further into the Nature and Dignity of this Joy, if we conGider,

Ver.37,

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Ver. 43.

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2. THE Object upon whom he plac'd it, The King hall rejoyce in the Lord. There are many Things that might be comprehended here, but I will keep my felf within thefe four; that when David's Joy was fixed upon God he must have,

1. HOPES of his own Eternal Salvation.

2. A SENSE of that Divine Hand that rais'd him to the Throne.

3. A KNOWLEDGE of thofe Rules that he was to Govern by, and

4.A REGARD to that End that he ought to aim at.

I. HE that rejoyceth in the LORD must have his Hopes extended to the Salvation of another World. The Glories of an Empire are but fhort and low for an Immortal Soul to take up with: No Portion is great enough that comes within this Life. Tho' what he fuppofeth in the Cafe of the Wicked was defirable, That God had filled their Belly with hid Treasures: Pfal. xvii. They were full of Children, and the re of their Subftance 14, 15. they left to their Babes; yet as for himself he was looking a great deal higher. I will behold thy face in Righteoufneß, I fhall be fatisfied when I awake with thy likeness. How foon is a King to be tumbled from his Throne, and fent without any Guards or Greatnefs to the Bar of a Righteous God? And what a poor Satisfaction does that Man give himself who is pleafed with a Crown here, tho' he hath no Hopes of one that fades not away? What was there in all the Pomp of a Court to balance the diftrefs of Mind that Saul fell under, when he begged a Favour of a Witch, and trembled before a Spectre, and gave this as the fad Reafon of his doing fo, The Philistines are upon me; and God is 1 Sam. departed from me? What a wretched State muft a dy- xxii. 15. ing Monarch be in, who is hurried away from the Glora Palace and the Flattery of Servants and in a

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