368 APPENDIX. 



glorify thy name, when thy judgments are thus 

 manifest? Thou hast brought them down that 

 dwell on high, and laid the lofty city low, even 

 to the ground; the joyous city of our solem- 

 nities, the royal chamber, the emporium of the 

 world, the mart of nations, the very top-gallant of 

 all our glory, in the dust. *Even so, Holy Fa- 

 ther, for so it seemed good in thy sight. We 

 say not to our God, What doest thou ? Wherefore 

 hath the Lord done thus to this great city? We 

 reply not, — we answer not again : The Lord hath 

 spoken ; let all the earth keep silence before him. 

 We acknowledge thy Hand in it, O our God ; we 

 submit to thy good pleasure in it ; we wait for 

 thy comfort, and thy salvation in it. We meekly 

 kiss the rod that strikes us : f with dying Jacob 



we desire to worship l-ar) to aapou rrig poiQh, with 



perfect resignation, as we are able, leaning and 

 reposing upon the top of this thy severe rod. 

 For J shall we receive good at the hand of our 

 God, and shall we not receive evil? It is the same 

 blessed hand that distributes and strikes ; and 

 with equal reverence and affection we adore it, 

 whether he opens it wide in bounty, or contracts 

 it close in severity : the one the Divine rhetoric 

 to persuade us to learn righteousness, the other 

 his more irrefragable logic, to convince and con- 

 strain us. And, therefore, we charge not our 

 Maker foolishly ; but meekly accept the punish- 

 ment of our iniquity. And having thus adored 



* Matt. xi. 26. f Heb. xi. 21. ; Job, ii. 10. 



