there no constituted authorities-no protecting laws-no charitable succours-no peaceful submission-no revered principles-no affectionate ties-to deprecate the experiments of these infuriate plunderers? Was the arrogant title of the Great Nation deservedly written with the blood, and deservedly decorated with the property, the resources, the claims, and distinctions, of these unhappy kingdoms? Of one country, once possessed of every earthly happiness, let me be excused for speaking with painful recollection. In the plain of ambition, in the struggle for power, in the search after wealth, there may be some plausible pretext for the bloody triumph, which may be dignified with the warrior's praise, or mocked with the sanction of freedom's banners. But the desolation of the Alpine vallies strikes a terror to the heart; their forms of government, their modes of legislation, their character, their education, and manners, were all cast in the fairest moulds of freedom; they had nothing to ask, but the undisturbed possession of enjoyments, which had grown out of the virtuous habits of industry and content, and which had rendered their confined domi

nions, and their own domestic claims, at once their glory and their consolation. It may, perhaps, be trespassing a little beyond the limits of a discourse from this place, to enter into these particulars; but from a country of peace, of love, of civil order, and religious dependence; from a country, we have seen, rich like our own in the choicest blessings, and even removed from many of its vices; from a country, to which, it should seem, that the prophetic language might almost be applied-the kings of the earth and all the inhabitants of the world could not have believed, that the adversary should have entered her gates; from such a country, overwhelmed with destruction, the reflection we wish to impress upon your hearts will be awfully striking; and from a lamentation over its smoaking ruins, we shall duly prize the value of our own preservation.

We are not presenting you with an imaginary tale of woe, nor producing the probable effects of licentious confusion among us; the dreadful consummation has been verified to our sight, and what reason and religion bid us expect, fact has realised, with every circumstance of horrid

completion. Renouncing, therefore, every presumptuous decision, our duty is to contemplate these signs, and to acquaint ourselves with the sentence already gone forth upon every kingdom:-Son of man, when the land sinneth against me by trespassing grievously, then will I stretch out mine hand upon it, and will break the staff of the bread thereof, and will send famine upon it, and will cut off man and beast from it: though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness, saith the LORD GOD. The threat and the accomplishment are now before us, and we have been signally protected and preserved. Shall we, then, hide from our hearts the instructive admonition? Shall we not ask them, what we have done to be excluded from the number of wretched victims? Shall we still refuse to interweave the fate of empires with that of religion, and close the century with some proud encomium on our national valour, or with some profound remarks on our political superiority?

If such be to be the issue of the mercies we have experienced, the time of our visitation is already decreed, our destruction already sealed.

Built on the foundation of those revelations which were given to Adam, to Noah, to Abraham, to Moses, and the Prophets, the church of Christ from age to age, from century to century, has verified the promise of her almighty Saviour-Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. However she may have suffered, or be ordained to suffer, under temporary corrections, the things that cannot be shaken, will remain. Even her adversaries, who are permitted to rule for the chastisement of the disobedient or the purification of the just, are only raised up to display the future triumphs of her glorious Leader, when He that spake in righteousness, mighty to save, shall with his own arm bring salvation unto his people; when He shall dash their enemies in pieces, and having accomplished the number of his elect, and the year of his redeemed being come, He shall appear in the character of King of kings, and Lord of lords, to claim dominion over his chosen, and to incorporate all (excepting those who have renounced his authority) into his kingdom upon earth, that they may become one fold under one shepherd.

From the creation to the dissolution of all things, every event has been preparatory to the great and eternal work of GOD to be effected in Christ Jesus; and History and Prophecy conspire to shew how far it has advanced towards its full and ultimate completion. We have seen the three dispensations, as they are called, the Patriarchal, the Mosaic, and the Christian(each in its allotted period, and with its destined purpose) preparing the way for a Redeemer's advent, and producing earnests of his future glory. The policy of states, the destiny of empires, the shifting scenes of earthly grandeur, are the subordinate parts, which men have acted, and which the mercy of God has made instrumental to his providential designs. In the Scripture History, therefore, and in that alone, have we a just comment upon human affairs, for He that ruleth in the kingdoms of men, can alone account for the power that He giveth, or taketh away. But it is by searching them out, by pondering and weighing them in all their circumstances, that the works of the LORD are known, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein.

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