rection. When ancient and late deliverances are forgotten, and have no effect on the mind; when the voice of God speaking in his law, by his prophets, and by the ministers of his word, is no longer attended to; nothing remains but to apply sharper remedies, or to permit the people to fill up the full measure of their iniquities, and to perish in their sins. It is mercy to prevent this fatal evil, how corroding soever the means made use of by mercy may prove. The perverseness and corruption of men's hearts justify the goodness and equity of God in inflicting such punishments, and they must blame themselves for not attending to the gentler and the kinder calls of Providence.

Perhaps there may be no great occasion to justify before you the ways of God towards the children of Israel; we are all of one opinion to condemn their perverseness and ingratitude: so much easier is it to detect the faults of others, than to see and acknowlege our own!

But are we innocent from this great offence?

Let us consider our own case: and surely we have great reason to consider it, now the enemies of our religion and liberty appear with triumph in our land, and are in possession of one ancient and powerful kingdom united to the crown of England.

Our unhappy divisions in civil matters I choose to pass over in silence at this time and place; for I mean no reproach to any man. And without doubt our conduct towards God, and our regard to his holy religion, is the first and most interesting consideration now before us.

It is well known that the people of Israel were the chosen, the peculiar people of God, and distinguished from the rest of the nations by a special Providence directing them and their affairs. If you consider this as the effect of partiality, and a weak fondness for one set of men more than another, you injure the attributes of God, who acts by wisdom and justice in all his dealings, and is no respecter of persons. The house of Abraham was called for the sake of true religion; to preserve the knowlege of the one God among themselves, to propagate it among the nations, and to prepare the way for introducing into the world, under proper circumstances, that seed in which all the nations of the earth were to be blessed. As they were

chosen for these great purposes, so whenever they acted contrary to them, they ceased to be the chosen people, and were treated as enemies and rebels.

We are apt enough to boast of the purity of our religion, and our reformation from the errors and corruptions of the church of Rome; and to flatter ourselves that we also are a peculiar people of God, and set up by Providence to be the bulwark of the protestant religion. And indeed, if we judge from the many deliverances we have had when our religion and our liberties were in utmost danger, we have great reason to acknowlege the care and protection of Heaven over us. But remember still that we too are chosen to profess and maintain the truth of God's holy gospel, and to bear our testimony against the corruptions which have prevailed over a great part of the Christian world. If, instead of acting up to this part assigned us by Providence, we grow careless and indifferent to our holy profession, and suffer a spirit of irreligion to prevail over the nation, we forfeit our title to God's protection; we are no longer the chosen people, and must expect to be treated as enemies and de

serters.

Our present situation is attended with fears and uneasy apprehensions; and if we look back and consider from whence we are fallen, we may see but too much reason to suspect that our fears are well grounded. How has this nation been blessed with the light of the gospel! How wonderfully and how often has it been rescued from danger, when to human appearance there was no help at hand! Scarcely had the Reformation taken root among us, but a popish queen, made cruel by bigotry and superstition, ascended the throne, and applied the only strong argument of popery, fire and fagot, to extinguish the light that was breaking in on us. Not only the civil powers of this country were in the hands that meant to destroy the Reformation, but they were supported and united to the powers of Spain, whose prince was become a partner of the throne of England; who lived to destroy (not in this country, blessed be God! but in his own dominions) thousands and tens of thousands on account of religion. Such were the powers under which the Reformation here, still in its infancy, was to struggle. It is painful to think of the miseries of that time; but think of them we ought, and

bless God for the noble examples of constancy and Christian courage, left by those whom he raised up to bear testimony, at the expense of their lives, to the truth of his religion. Had this reign been long and prosperous, it is highly probable that Philip of Spain had left this country in the same condition he left his own; where the Inquisition rules with lordly and uncontrollable power over the consciences and over the fortunes of the people. But God, in whose hands are the issues of life and death, made way for a protestant princess to ascend the throne; in whose long and glorious reign the Reformation took deep root, and the establishment of this national church was perfected: a work of great wisdom and piety, and so esteemed by the protestant churches abroad, however unhappily some among ourselves have forsaken her communion.

The reign of this glorious princess was almost a continual scene of deliverances from foreign invasions and disturbances at home. And notwithstanding she was distressed on every side, by bulls and curses from Rome, by armadas from Spain, by rebellions in England and Ireland, she left this church and nation in peace and security: so wonderfully did the hand of God appear in our preservation.

Peace and security under a weak government which suc.ceeded, produced by degrees a corruption in principles and manners, which ended at last in the ruin of this church and nation, and the destruction of a virtuous prince, worthy of a far better fate. With him fell all our hopes of order and government in church and state; anarchy and confusion usurped the throne; and religion was so divided into an almost infinite number of disagreeing sects, that the true one could hardly be found in the crowd.

But whilst we are under this thick cloud, He, who can bring light out of darkness, did, against all the hopes of human probability, restore us to our happy constitution in church and state not by force of arms, or the power of princes, but by overruling the passions of men; so that even they became instruments in restoring these blessings, who had been greatly concerned in destroying them.

It will be wronging the nation to say that this deliverance at the Restoration was not received with great joy and plea

sure. The joy indeed was excessive; and as the case too often. happens, left little room for sober and serious reflexions. The hearts of men being set open to the impressions and transports of joy, soon grew sensual; and the prosperity of the nation broke out into luxury, and into all the vices which naturally attend it. The senses of religion decayed; and the very appearances of it were suspected, as a remnant of the hypocrisy with which the late times had been charged. And if we may judge by the performances of the stage, which are formed to the taste of the people, there never was a time when lewdness, irreligion, and profaneness, were heard with more patience.

But let us consider what fruit the nation had of these things. I shall pass over all the calamities of that time, which were many, and mention only that which is the cause and foundation of all we fear at present. In the next reign then, see popery once more exalted to the throne of England, and working to destroy the religion and liberties of the people; not by art and cunning, and leisurely steps, but by open and avowed attempts on our constitution. The laws for defence of our religion were silenced by a dispensing power; papists were placed on the bench, on the seat of judgment, and at the head of colleges in our universities. Men's hearts sank for fear, and the torrent seemed to carry all before it. One happy effect indeed it had; it awakened men to a sober sense of themselves and their condition. When they were put in fear, they soon found themselves to be but men; and they did the only reasonable thing they could do, apply to God for protection. The zeal of the nation at that time, for the pure uncorrupted doctrines of the gospel, in opposition to the errors of popery, was perhaps greater than ever it had been from the days of the Reformation. The pastors and their flocks were equally animated with a constancy and a courage above temptation. And the clergy of the established church, under all the fears and apprehensions that daily threatened them, maintained the doctrines of the Reformation with such learning, ability, and integrity, as did them honor both at home and abroad.

Thus were the hearts of the people turned as the heart of one man: nor was it in vain they sought the Lord; for by a wonderful series of providence he delivered them from their

distress. And we have seen for many years the crown on the head of protestant princes, the natural guardians of the religion and liberties of this country.

If we have made right use of this last deliverance, let us fear no change; for God will not forsake us till we forsake him. But the prospect before us, the danger that draws near to us, call on us to act uprightly with ourselves; and not to deceive our hearts with hopes that God will remember us, if we have forgot him and the great things he has done for us.

Our histories will always remind us of the great deliverances this nation has had, and we cannot forget them; nor did the Jews forget the wonders wrought in the land of Egypt, and the redemption of their ancestors from captivity. The historical remembrance of the facts they had; and we have it. The charge against the Jews expressed frequently by their forgetting God, is the same which St. Paul brings against the heathen world: When they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations; and their foolish heart was darkened.'

Do we stand clear of this charge? I wish to God we did. Let not me be the accuser of my nation, but let every man recollect what he has heard, and read, and seen, within the compass of a few years. Surely the gospel of Christ Jesus was never treated with greater malice and contempt, by Jews or Heathens, than it has been in this Christian country. Think not that I am condemning a sober inquiry into the truth of religion: God forbid. But what shall we say, for the undisguised profaneness, and even blasphemy, that has swarmed from the press! Many instances might be given ; but one can never be forgotten; where the noblest and most exalted hymn of Christian devotion known to this church, or any church in the world, in which angels and the blessed spirits above join with us, has been perverted to the highest impiety and blasphemy that ever the wickedness or malice of man's heart could conceive. This and other crimes of the same nature are indeed chargeable on the authors: but how deplorable must the state of a nation be, when men find encouragement to provide such entertainment for the public!

Look into common life, not to pry into the secret faults of