Queen’s Accession to the Throne, and the first Year in which that Day was solemnly observed, (for, by some Accident or other, it had been overlook’d the Year before;) and every one will see, without the date of it, that it was preached very early in this Reign, since I was able only to promise and presage its future Glories and Successes, from the good Appearances of things, and the happy Turn our Affairs began to take; and could not then count up the Victories and Triumphs that, for seven Years after, made it, in the Prophet’s Language, a Name and a Praise among all the People of the Earth.  Never did seven such Years together pass over the head of any English Monarch, nor cover it with so much Honour:  The Crown and Sceptre seemed to be the Queen’s least Ornaments; those, other Princes wore in common with her, and her great personal Virtues were the same before and since; but such was the Fame of her Administration of Affairs at home, such was the Reputation of her Wisdom and Felicity in chusing Ministers, and such was then esteemed their Faithfulness and Zeal, their Diligence and great Abilities in executing her Commands; to such a height of military Glory did her great General and her Armies carry the British Name abroad; such was the Harmony and Concord betwixt her and her Allies, and such was the Blessing of God upon all her Counsels and Undertakings, that I am as sure as History can make me, no Prince of ours was ever yet so prosperous and successful, so beloved, esteemed, and honoured by their Subjects and their Friends, nor near so formidable to their Enemies.  We were, as all the World imagined then, just ent’ring on the ways that promised to lead to such a Peace, as would have answered all the Prayers of our religious Queen, the Care and Vigilance of a most able Ministry, the Payments of a willing and obedient People, as well as all the glorious Toils and Hazards of the Soldiery; when God, for our Sins, permitted the Spirit of Discord to go forth, and, by troubling sore the Camp, the City, and the Country, (and oh that it had altogether spared the Places sacred to his Worship!) to spoil, for a time, this beautiful and pleasing Prospect, and give us, in its stead, I know not what—­Our Enemies will tell the rest with Pleasure.  It will become me better to pray to God to restore us to the Power of obtaining such a Peace, as will be to his Glory, the Safety, Honour, and the Welfare of the Queen and her Dominions, and the general Satisfaction of all her High and Mighty Allies.

  May 2, 1712.

  T.

[Footnote 1:  Dr. William Fleetwood, Bishop of St. Asaph, had published Four Sermons.

1.  On the death of Queen Mary, 1694. 2.  On the death of the Duke of Gloucester, 1700. 3.  On the death of King William, 1701. 4.  On the Queen’s Accession to the Throne, in 1702, with a Preface. 8vo.  London, 1712.