Western kingdoms, which, though changing occasionally by small accessions or diminutions, still subsist; and lastly, by the Mahometan power, raised up to be the Pharaoh, the Nebuchadnezzar, and the Antiochus Epiphanes of these last days to the Eastern churches. And if the princes of this Western division should go on to weaken and destroy each other, while nothing is done to revive the spirit and power of the Gospel in Christendom (for when they are departed, a mere name will avail us as little as it did the Jews, or the Greek Christians), may it not be feared that the Western empire will one day follow the fate of the Eastern, and the crescent be seen flying on the towers of Vienna, as well as on those of Constantinople! since it seems hardly to admit of a doubt, that the Mahometan empire is the last and great antichristian power, raised and supported to be the scourge of apostate Christians; which, when it shall have performed the task allotted it, the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and destroy with the brightness of his coming; when the kingdoms of this world shall finally become the kingdoms of our Lord and his Christ, and the superiority of his church over them all shall be as visible as it is certain.

Thus, by going into the sanctuary of God, we see the end of all earthly glory, and behold the empires of the world passing swiftly by us, and vanishing away, to give place to that kingdom which shall endure for ever; while God, by suffering them to continue no longer than he had occasion to employ them. in the service of the church, gives us a clear evidence. that they were raised up for this end. It is here that

we are to look for the secret spring of all victories and overthrows; here we are to search after the true cause of the rise and ruin of states; which, with the renowned conductors of them, whether in peace or in war, are but so many instruments in the hand of Heaven, to execute its designs of mercy or judgement on the church, and on each other in subordination to her, as they respectively from time to time become the objects of either, according to the uniform tenour of the divine economy from the beginning to the end of the world.

With regard to this nation in particular, and the manner in which the designs of Providence concerning the church have been brought about by the revolutions that have happened in the state, it is obvious to observe, that as the conquest of Britain by the Romans opened a way for the Gospel to visit it at first, so the invasion of it afterwards by the Saxons, who, having overcome the sinful inhabitants, were themselves converted to the faith by Austin, became a means of the revival and re-establishment of that Gospel. At the head of the many blessings since bestowed upon us will that of this day for ever stand, in the estimation of all those who have pleasure in the prosperity of Sion; who love to behold her in her apostolical form and comeliness, as she appeared in the days of old, and in the years that are past, before schism had mangled and heresy defaced the beauty of holiness. In God's dealings with the church of England, restored as at this time by the restoration of the royal family, we behold an epitome of his former proceedings with regard to the church in

general. We behold a power raised up to afflict and chastise her, and then destroying itself to pave the way for her deliverance and recovery. But some circumstances there are which distinguish this dispensation, and deserve to be carefully marked. The avenger came not upon us from without, but arose from amongst ourselves. It was not an open enemy that did us this dishonour, for then we could have borne it. The sorrow only had then been ours. But, alas! the guilt was so too. The assault was made, not as formerly, by heathen and infidel powers, in professed opposition to the Gospel, but by some who (if the people would take their word for it) were the only true Gospel preachers; and who, by a strange inversion of Scripture, having appropriated to themselves the character of the Israel of God, applied all the prophecies concerning Egypt, Babylon, and the other enemies of Israel, to the church and the monarchy. The grand secret of this most detestable enthusiasm (and indeed the case is the same with every other species of it) was the art of setting up Christ against his own laws, and superseding external ordinances by fanciful internal revelations. The truth is, a spirit of schism and a spirit of faction, meeting in the same hearts, formed at this period of time a set of the most accomplished rebels against the kingdom and priesthood of Jesus Christ, as delegated to his representatives in church and state. But the battery raised for the demolition of both was masked with such an hypocrisy as the world never saw before, nor, it is to be hoped, will ever see again. Under the words liberty and reformation lay con

cealed the mine which at length blew up the constitution from its foundations. Mankind beheld with astonishment the parliamentary cannon pointed against the king, for the security of his person; the Christian church overturned to introduce the reign of Jesus; and the saints, as they blasphemously styled themselves, inheriting the earth, instead of its right owners, to show their heavenly mindedness. Then the mystery of iniquity stood unfolded, and the eyes of the unwary, who had at first followed Absalom in the simplicity of their hearts, were opened. But it was too late. They could only reflect (and teach their children to reflect in time) upon the truth of the wise man's aphorism, and the excellency of the advice grounded upon it: "The beginning of strife "is as when one letteth out water; therefore leave "off contention before it be meddled with." They plainly discerned, that he who said, "Let Let every "be subject unto the higher powers," understood the nature of government, and knew upon what principles alone it could be supported; since the remedy of rebellion proved (as it always will) to be infinitely worse than the disease of mal-administration; and the little finger of a commonwealth was found to be heavier than the loins of monarchy; the nation (besides the destruction of the best of churches, and the unparalleled murder of the best of kings), having suffered more, beyond all comparison, in the space of twenty years, from the tyranny of the pretended patriots, than from the despotismn of all the princes who had ever worn the imperial crown of England. But, as the infatuated self-willedness of rebels disposes them to suffer,

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so the justice of God generally ordains that they shall suffer more and worse things from the usurper whom they themselves set up, than they ever could have done from their lawful sovereign; and accordingly they who dashed in pieces the gracious sceptre of a Stuart, were scourged with the iron rod of a Cronwell.

But this rod of the oppressor, when by it the Lord had visited the transgressions of his people, was at length broken. The prayers of the faithful remnant prevailed; and he who created and preserves the world for the sake of his church; he who secured her in the ark when the flood came, and watched over her in the families of the patriarchs; he who brought her forth out of Egypt, led her through the wilderness, settled her in the promised inheritance, and made her to be the glory of the whole earth; he who raised up Cyrus to deliver her from the power of Babylon; who turned the heart of Alexander in her favour; who went forth with Judas and his brethren to the battle against the armies of Antiochus; and bade the sword of Constantine conquer under the banner of the cross; the same Lord who is rich unto all that call upon him, because his mercy endureth for ever, heard the groanings of the church of England under her captivity; and having sent a spirit of dissension and confusion amongst the builders of the schismatical and republican Babel, he opened the eyes of the people to see that there was only one way of putting a period to the miseries of their country; and, at a time when it was least hoped for, and by an instrument least suspected, he bowed