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To keep Popery from falling, to maintain the power and influence of the clergy, and all that error and superstition by which they fasten on the minds of mankind, and circuitously support their own despotic power. But be the. motives and aims of some what they may, every man's duty is to judge himself, as in the sight of God, that he be not judged; and as it is possible that which is highly criminal may meet with the approbation of the majority of a nation, and thus great national guilt be incurred, it becomes us to examine ourselves on this important point.

Our religion teaches us, and our fathers, the reformers, were zealous in impressing its dictates, that Rome is the whore of Babylon *, the mother of harlots, and no true church of Christ; that Popery is superstition and idolatry; a religion, at once at war against the kingdom of Christ and the happiness of mankind; a religion, tyrannical, blasphemous, and diabolical, in principle, and bloody in practice. Our religion teaches us that this same system of corruption and oppression, which impregnates all the governments which receive it, and all the religious estab lishments which have grown out of it, with its own enslaving and corrupt principles, shall be brought to an end worthy of its enormities; it has determined and delineated the signs for the accomplishment, and charged us to watch their appearance, and to have no alliance with the mother of harlots, that we partake not of her sins, and receive not of her plagues. If the signs of the times indicate the approach of these threatened judgments, our part is to stand at a distance and contemplate the progress of the awful ruin, and not rush into the conflict, to stop the uplifted arm of God's vengeance; then might be fulfilled in our favour that saying, (Ps. xci. 7, 8.) "A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand, but it shall not come near thee; only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked." But, if we join issue with the declared supporters of the whore of Babylon, and unite with them to arrest the vengeance of Heaven, what fate have we to expect, but to share in their ruin a ruin as dreadful as it will be extensive!

Thus, my countrymen, I have endeavoured to set before you, in the best manner I am able, the signs of the times, and what they portend. I have endeavoured to

* See Homilies of the Church of England, p. 159 and 283. edit. of

1766.

rouse your attention to the consideration of your ways, and your true interest, that you may take such measures as may be the most likely to secure us from the desolations of that storm which already shakes the greater part of Europe-a storm, if our conceptions are just, which will speedily lay in ruins all the nations which shall be found opposing the designs of God in the overthrow of that Antichristian system, secular and ecclesiastical, which has so long corrupted and destroyed the earth.

As it was in the days of Noe, before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came and took them all away, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man, in the execution of the divine judgments on the wicked nations, be. Say not in your hearts then," He delayeth his coming;" for he has forewarned us that he will come as a thief in the night, at a time when not expected. Let us therefore watch and repent. Reformations in governments, if attainable at any tolerable price, are very desirable; but we deceive ourselves, if we imagine that this will be sufficient to ensure the general peace and happiness of society. Unless the great mass of mankind are reformed and christianized, every thing else will be insufficient *. Whilst pride, ambition, and corruption predominate; whilst meanness and servility on the one hand, and refractoriness and contempt of authority on the other, prevail; whilst the moral sense of the generality of mankind is corrupt; or, as our Lord expresses it, whilst the light which is in them is darkness, and irreligion and vice triumph, it is in vain to expect any great good. I own I am extremely desirous of seeing a peaceable reformation take place in the representation,

*I cannot forbear expressing the satisfaction which I feel from the institution of Sunday schools. More honour is due to the man who projected such a scheme of improvement than to the most brilliant conquerors. Should nations become so wise as to convert a little of that money which is lavished on court sycophants, or spent in needless and unjust wars, to the purpose of maintaining, on a more extensive plan, parochial schools, which should be under the direction of the inhabitants, for the instruction of the poor gratis, we might then hope for amendment, both in the principles and condition of the most numerous and most useful part of mankind. It is a debt due to the poor, and the payment of which would enrich the payer. The money spent in one needless war would more than educate all our poor for ever!-But, alas! there are too many who think that Ignorance is the mother of other useful children besides Devotion.

and in the administration of the affairs of this country, as that which might contribute much to the bettering mankind, and which alone promises any hope of escaping the calamities of a revolution, or of alleviating the other distresses which threaten us. But, if this should be accomplished, and nothing but this, I confess my expectations are not very sanguine as to the great and permanent good which would follow. As a corrupt government diffuses its corruptions through the whole mass of society, so, should a few wise and virtuous men effect a pure government, yet, if the great body of the nation remained unreformed, they would soon corrupt the best institutions, and the adminstration of the best government that human intellect could devise, and nothing could still save us from the displeasure of God. Let both these reformations, therefore, go hand in hand, and let them speedily be commenced, for nothing short of instant reformation, and an instant change of measures, can afford us any solid hope of salvation. Did God say, respecting the profligate Jews, when the whole body politic was diseased from the head to the foot, "Shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?" What have the nations, under the Christian dispensation, to expect, if, like them, they become universally diseased? Let us therefore examine ourselves and repent.

What, in a general view, is our moral character as a nation? Has our virtue, our moderation, our justice, our love of civil and religious liberty, and our attachment to the principles of Protestantism, kept pace with our advancement in the scale of nations? We are called by the name of Christ, and profess to be a religious people; but, do we emplify in our practice those holy principles which we profess? Do we do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with God; or, does infidelity and profaneness, bribery and corruption, lewdness and debauchery, pride and dissipation, pervade all ranks of men, and threaten a universal dissolution? Are the rights of conscience revered; or, is our fondness for the wine of the whore of Babylon returning, and are we to judge of the temper of the nation from the flames which bigotry kindled at Birmingham in ninety-one? We are a nation of professed Christians. The pastors which we approve, whether of the Established Church or otherwise, are they the meek and humble imitators of Him whose servants they are called? Do the generality of them seek, not filthy lucre, but the salvation

of the souls of men? Are they faithful, to reprove and warn; or, do they preach to us smooth things, and say, Peace, peace, when there is no peace? Are they diligent in the discharge of their duties-labouring to instruct the ignorant, to reclaim the vicious, to comfort the afflicted, and to unite men in the bonds of charity; or, are they proud and worldly; diligent only after gain; idle shepherds, who care not for the flock, and who sow among mankind the seeds of contention? Do they recommend and enforce the religion which they profess, by the holiness and purity, benevolence and piety of their lives; or, are they lovers of pleasure, eating and drinking with the drunken, whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is their shame, who mind earthly things? (Phil. iii. 19.) Are the great body of the people content to have it thus, and moved only by what affects their worldly interest? Should this, on examination, be found to be the case, it surely calls for deep humiliation, and suggests that, without a repentance and reformation, as general as sincere, some heavy calamity must burst up

on us.

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What Dr. Hartly (in his Observations on Man) wrote, fifty years ago, deserves our serious consideration, "How near" (he says, vol. ii. p. 568.) "the dissolution of the present governments, generally or particularly, may "be, would be great rashness to affirm. Christ will come "in this sense also as a thief in the night.' Our duty "therefore is to, watch and to pray; to be faithful stew"ards, to give meat, and all other requisites, in due sea

son, to those under our care; and to endeavour by "these, and all other lawful means, to preserve the go"vernment, under whose protection we live, from disso"lution, seeking the peace of it, and submitting to every "ordinance of man for the Lord's sake. No prayers, no "endeavours of this kind can fail of having some good "effect, public or private, for the preservation of our"selves and others. The great dispensations of Provi"dence are conducted by means that are either secret, "or, if they appear, that are judged feeble and ineffica"cious. No man can tell, however private his station "may be, but his fervent prayer may avail to the salva"tion of much people. But it is more peculiarly the "duty of magistrates thus to watch over their subjects,

to pray for them, and to set about the reformation of "all matters civil and ecclesiastical, to the utmost of

"their power. Good governors may promote the wel"fare and continuance of a state, and wicked ones must "accelerate its ruin. The sacred history affords us in

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stances of both kinds, and they are recorded there for "the admonition of kings and princes in all future "times."

P. 370. "There are many prophecies which declare "the fall of the ecclesiastical powers of the Christian "world. And though each church seems to flatter itself "with the hopes of being exempted, yet it is very plain "that the prophetical characters belong to all. They "have all left the true, pure, simple religion, and teach "for doctrines the commandments of men. They are "all merchants of the earth, and have set up a kingdom "of this world, abounding in riches, temporal power, "and external pomp. They have all a dogmatizing σε spirit, and persecute such as do not receive their own "mark, and worship the image which they have set up.

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They all neglect Christ's command of preaching the "gospel to all nations, and even that of going to the "lost sheep of the house of Israel; there being innu"merable multitudes in all Christian countries, who have 66 never been taught to read, and who are in other respects also destitute of the means of saving knowledge. "It is very true that the church of Rome is Babylon the "Great, and the mother of harlots,' and of the abomi"nations of the earth.' But all the rest have copied her example, more or less. They have all received money, "like Ġehazi; and therefore the leprosy of Naaman will "cleave to them, and to their seed for ever. And this "impurity may be considered not only as justifying "the application of the prophecies to all the Christian "churches, but as a natural cause for their downfal. "The corrupt governors of the several churches will ever oppose the true gospel, and in so doing will bring "ruin upon themselves.

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P. 375. "As the downfal of the Jewish state under "Titus was the occasion of the publication of the gospel "to us Gentiles, so our downfal may contribute to the "restoration of the Jews, and both together bring on the "final publication and prevalence of the true religion. "Thus the type and the thing typified will coincide. "The first fruits and the lump are made holy together." P. 377. "The downfal of the civil and ecclesiastical powers must both be attended with such public cala

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