OF LANCASTER COUNTY. 243 



under God, will save this country, and of consequence the British empire 

 from apparent ruin. 



5thly. Soldiers must not accuse any faUely ; this is a certain species of 

 wickedness too common to soldiers; those of them that watched the 

 sepulchre of our Lord, falsely accused his disciples, tltat they came and stole 

 his body tahile they slept; they were hired to tell this lie by government, 

 and what will not poor ignorant, sottish, selfish, low-lived, ill-bred grace- 

 less creatures, that have no fear of God at all, do for money ? And I wish 

 we may not find that the soldiers at Boston, have sent lies home, or 

 false accusations of the brave Provincials — when they gave them such a 

 severe drubbing in the action of Lexington. 



Lastly under this head, as the design of raising armies, is the defence 

 of the people, as soon as this is bravely ascertained, the Christian soldier 

 should lay by the sword, and disband the army, lest their existence, when 

 not necessary, should occasion the very miseries they were raised to 

 avert. A few inferences shall now conclude this discourse. 



1. Our subject teaches us deeply to bewail the universal depravity 

 of human nature; O Adam! in what a deplorable condition is thy fami- 

 ly now ! — what hast thou done ! — how many evil passions and appetites 

 rage in the world! Envy, wrath, malice, dissimulation, covetousness, 

 pride, brutal lusts, &;c., &c. whence arise those crushing woes and calami- 

 ties of wars, murder, rapine, slaughter and desolations among mankind. 

 How just it is for a holy God, as the moral Governor of the world, to 

 punish such sinful guilty creatures. 



2. We learn hence the exceeding innate evil of sin; if the punish- 

 ment is not inadequate to the offence, which we are not to suppose, then 

 the offence is very great, because of the great punishment inflicted. 



3. We also learn from our subject, to admire the care of divine provi- 

 dence over the human race, to continue men on the earth amidst such 

 deluges of miseries or destruction on every hand. And as civil govern- 

 ment, in the hand of divine providence, is subservient here too, we ought 

 to bless God for the institution, and support it while government con- 

 tinues to observe its original design, viz., the protection of the lives and 

 properties of the people. 



•i. We may also acknowledge the goodness of God, in abridging the 

 life of man to 70 years, for that is long enough for the wicked to rage, 

 and the righteous to suffer — and be absent from that rest that God has 

 prepared for his people. How amazing that the Church of Christ has 

 not been swallowed up, by the united combinations of all the evil — 

 spirits of darkness, and the wicked in this world in every age! this is the 

 mighty power of God indeed! 



5. We learn from this subject, the special need our world stands in of 

 a Saviour, that by the grace of his holy covenant, according to the 



