for those who had suffered in so much nobler a cause, and with so much better effect, what can we say, but with the psalmist, "that promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor yet from the south. But God is the judge: he putteth down one, and setteth up another. For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup, and the wine is red; it is full mixed, and he poureth out of the But as for the dregs thereof, all the wicked of the earth shall wring them out, and drink them. All the horns also of the wicked shall be cut off, but the horns of the righteous shall be exalted."

same. ·

Another less momentous, yet highly interesting instance of providential remuneration, connected with this great event, must not be passed over. It shall be given in the words of a living and a near observer. "A wife," says bishop Burnet, " was to be sought for prince Charles (the emperor's brother, whom the allies wished to establish on the Spanish throne) among the protestant courts, for there was not a suitable match in the popish courts. He had seen the princess of Anspach, and was much taken with her, so that great applications were made to persuade her to change her religion; but she could not be prevailed on to buy a crown at so dear rate. And, soon after, she was married to the prince electoral of Brunswick; which gave a glorious character of her to this nation. And her pious firmness is like to be rewarded, even in this life, by a much better crown than that which she rejected."* Surely this portion of our queen Caroline's history deserves to be had in perpetual remembrance!

a

The same prelate, speaking of king William, says, "I considered him as a person raised up by God, to resist the power of France, and the progress

* Burnet's Own Times, 1707. [Queen Caroline, consort of George II., died in 1738.-ED.1

of tyranny and persecution. The thirty years, from the year 1672 to his death, in which he acted so great a part, carry in them so many amazing steps of a glorious and distinguishing providence, that, in the words of David, he may be called 'the man of God's right hand, whom he made strong for himself.'

But, if there were just ground for this remark respecting this particular period, and this individual personage, what shall we say of the entire chain of providences which runs through our whole national history, from the landing of our Saxon ancestors, to the present hour? May it not be confidently asked, Is there at this day a nation upon earth, whose circumstances appear so clearly to have been arranged, and bound together, by the hands of HIM, "who does whatsoever he pleaseth both in heaven and earth?"

That the purposes of this great scheme have, as yet, been most inadequately answered, as far as our free agency is concerned, is a deep ground for our humiliation, but no argument against the reality of providential direction. The sacred history of the Jews, the only people who have been more distinguished than ourselves, presents to us not only their unparalleled obligations to the Almighty, but also a series of such abuses of those mercies, as at length brought upon them a destruction as unexampled as their guilt. The great purposes of Heaven cannot be frustrated; but the instrument which embarrassed the process may, too surely, be excluded from any share in the beneficial results, and be, on the contrary, the distinguished victim of indignation. Thus Judea, in spite of all its apostacies, was made subservient to its original object. In spite of the barrenness of the parent tree, the mystic branch was made to spring from its roots; but this purpose being once served, the

tree itself, nourished as it had been with the chief fatness of the earth, and with the richest dews of heaven, was "hewn down and cast into the fire."

Let England, let those especially of rank and influence, and, above all, let the personage whose high, but most awful trust, it may be to have the delegated oversight of this vineyard, which God has "fenced and planted with the choicest vine;" let ALL feel the weight of their responsibility, and avert those judgments which Divine justice may deem commensurate to our abused advantages!

We have been the object of admiration to the whole civilized world! Such have been the blessings conferred upon us, and such have been the bright lights, from time to time, raised up among us, that it could not be otherwise. But what would the effect have been, if our unexampled constitution, correspondent to its native design, had called forth, not the unblushing, because unpunishable, baseness of party profligacy, but the unfettered, disinterested, unanimous exertion of commanding talent, of energetic application, and of invincible virtue! If a solicitude to digest the principles, to imbibe the spirit, and to exemplify the virtues of our illustrious worthies had been as assiduously excited by preceptors in their pupils, and by parents in their children, as a blind admiration of them, or a blinder vanity on account of them: if those worthies had been as sedulously initiated, as they have been loudly extolled; and, above all, if our national church establishment had been as universally influential, as it is intrinsically admirable in its impressive ordinances, its benignant spirit, and its liberal yet unadulterated doctrines-we mean not if these effects had been produced to any improbable utopian extent, but in that measure which was, in the nature of things, possible, and which the moral Governor of the universe had an equitable

right to look for. If this had been realized, who can say what evils might have been prevented, what good might have been accomplished? How might protestantish have spread through Europe, did our national morals keep pace with our profession! How happily might the sound philosophy of the English school, when thus illustrated, have precluded the impious principles and the blasphemous language of Voltaire and his licentious herd! And how would the widely diffused radiance of our then unclouded constitution have poured even upon surrounding countries so bright a day, as to have made rational liberty an object of general, but safe pursuit; and left no place for those works of darkness by which France has degraded herself, and outraged human nature!

Shall we then persevere in our inattention to the indications of Providence? Shall we persist in our neglect or abuse of the talents committed to us? Shall we be still unconscious that all our prosperity hangs suspended on the sole will of God, and that the moment of his ceasing to sustain us, will be the moment of our destruction? And shall not this be felt particularly by those who, by being placed highest in the community, would, in such a ruin, be the most signal victims, so they may now do most toward averting the calamity? On the whole, what is the almost audible language of Heaven to prince and people, to nobles and commoners, to church and state, but that of the great Author of our religion, in his awful message to the long since desolated churches of Asia? "Repent, or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight against thee with the sword of my mouth; and I will kill thy children with death, and all the churches shall know that I am he that searcheth the reins and hearts, and I will give to every one of you according to your works."

CHAPTER XL.

On Christianity as a principle of action, especially as it respects supreme rulers.

CHRISTIANITY is not an ingenious theory, a sublime but impracticable speculation, a fanciful invention to exercise the genius or sharpen the wit; but it is a system for common apprehension, for general use, and daily practice. It is critically adapted to the character of man, intelligible to his capacity, appropriated to his wants, and accommodated to his desires. It contains, indeed, abstruse mysteries to exercise his faith, to inure him to submission, to habituate him to dependence; but the sublimest of its doctrines involve deep practical consequences.

Revelation exhibits what neither the philosophy of the old, nor the natural religion of the modern, sceptic ever pretended to exhibit, a compact system of virtues and graces. Philosophy boasted only fair ideas, independent virtues, and disconnected duties. Christianity presents an unmutilated whole, in which a few simple but momentous premises induce a chain of consequences commensurate with the immortal nature of man. It is a scheme which not only displays every duty, but displays it in its just limitation and relative dependence; maintaining a lovely symmetry and fair proportion, which arise from the beautiful connexion of one virtue with another, and of all virtues with that faith of which they are the fruits.

But the paramount excellence of Christianity is, that its effects are not limited, like the virtues of the pagans, to the circumscribed sphere of this world. Their thoughts and desires, though they occasionally appeared, from their sublimity, to have been fitted for a wider range, were, in a great measure, shut in by the dark and narrow bounds of the