selves, and their examples the most persuasive sermons to others. May Almighty God bless the endeavours of all such, reward their services, and increase their numbers, and grant us all to be like-minded, striving in nothing but how we may best promote the glory of God, the good of mankind, and the salvation of our own souls. A SERMON PREACHED BEFORE THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE, On Thursday the 7th of June, 1716. Being the Day of Public THANKSGIVING to Almighty God for suppressing the late unnatural REBELLION. 2 SAM. XX. I, 2% And there happened to be there a man of Belial, whose name was Sheba, the son of Bichri, a Benjamite: and he blew a trumpet, and said, We have no part in David, neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse: every man to his tents, O Israel. So every man of Israel went up from after David, and followed Sheba the son of Bichri: but the men of Judah clave unto their king, from Jordan even to Jerusalem. THIS and the foregoing chapter give us the history of the rise, progress, and conclusion of an unnatural rebellion raised against good King David: one that appeared formidable, and might have been of unhappy consequence to him and his kingdoms, had not his timely care and vigilance (with the blessing of God thereupon) seasonably suppressed it. The narrative of the matter is this. King David a had been some time absent from his royal city, having" fled out of the land for Absalom." But as soon as the death of Absalom had removed all difficulties, "the people were at strife throughout all the tribes of Israel," about bringing the King back to Jerusalem, to reinstate him in his throne. ઠંડ The King, hearing of the zeal and concern which his subjects of Israel had for him, thought proper to intimate it to the elders of Judah, inviting them, as being nearest akin to him, of the same tribe with himself, his brethren, his bones, and his flesh, as himself expresseth it, to come to him with all convenient speed, that they might not be "the last to bring back the King." By this affectionate and endearing message," he bowed "the heart of all the men of Judah, even as the heart of ■ 2 Sam. xix. 9. Ver. 11. © Ver. 12. |