he guided them, by a cloud in the day, and by a fire in the night. He fought their battles, subdued their enemies, and put them in possession of the land he had promised to their forefathers. They were a people whom the Most High selected for himself, as his peculiar treasure, Ps. cxxxv. 4. He was their God and their King. They were the only people who were at that time favoured with the knowledge of the true God, and how to worship him acceptably. He gave them his laws and ordinances. He resided among them, and honoured them with a visible token of his presence in the tabernacle, and afterwards in the temple. They were likewise under an especial care of his providence. The fruitfulness of their land did not depend upon the climate, but the early and the latter rain returned regularly at the stated seasons, by his appointment; and when, in obedience to his commands, all their males from the most distant parts went up three times in a year to Jerusalem, and left their borders destitute of human defence, God so impressed the surrounding nations with awe, that, though hostile in their dispositions, they never availed themselves of that seemingly favourable opportunity for invading them, Exod. xxxiv. 24. Under the reign of Solomon, they enjoyed peace, plenty, prosperity, and wealth, in a degree till then unknown among the nations of the earth. What returns did Israel make to the Lord for all these benefits? The history of their conduct is little more than the recital of a long series of ungrateful murmurings, disobedience, and rebellion. They resisted his will, broke his commandments, mingled with the heathen, and learned their ways. They repeatedly forsook the Lord God of their fathers, worshipped dumb idols, and practised all the abominations of the nations which the Lord had cast out before them. Their sins often brought calamities upon them. The Lord gave them up unto the hands of their enemies; they suffered by the sword, by pestilence and by famine. When he slew them, then they sought him; and when they sought him, he was entreated of them, Ps. lxxviii. 34. He delivered them out of their afflictions; but they soon forgot his goodness, and returned to their evil ways. He sent many of his servants in succession, to admonish and warn them; but they despised his words, they mocked his messengers, and misused his prophets, 2 Chron. xxxvi. 16. But can we read the history of Israel, without remarking how strongly it resembles our own? Have we not been equally distinguished from the nations around us, by spiritual and temporal blessings, and by our gross misimprovement of them? We are assembled this day to join in public thanksgivings for public mercies, but we have great cause for public humiliation likewise. We have much reason to rejoice in the goodness of the Lord; but we have reason to temper our joy with trembling (Ps. ii. 11,) when we compare the state of things around us, with that of Ephraim and Judah in the days of the prophet Hosea. While too many persons lose their time and temper in political and party disputes. and refer all the calamities we either feel or fear to instruments and second causes, let us acknowledge that the Lord God omnipotent reigneth! Rev. xix. 6. Let us consider sin as the procuring cause of all our troubles. Let us recognize his hand in them, and con fess that, in all the distress he has brought upon us, he has not dealt with us as our iniquities deserve. May our hearts be suitably affected, while I attempt a brief sketch of the abounding evils and abominations prevalent amongst us, which might justly provoke the Lord to sweep this land, so long the land of peace and liberty, with the besom of destruction! and then we shall be prepared to praise him for those merciful and signal interpositions of his providence, which afford us some ground to hope, that, notwithstanding all our provocations, he will not yet give us up. I. Offences of the same kind may be heightened and aggravated by circumstances. Thus an insult offered to a benefactor, a parent, or a king, is deemed more grievous than if the person offended was in all respects an equal. In this sense, I fear the sins of Great Britain are of a deeper dye than those of any nation in Europe; because they are committed against greater advantages and privileges than any other people have enjoyed. May not the Lord appeal to ourselves, as to Israel of old, What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done? Is. v. 4. After the black night of Popish darkness, in which Christendom had been for ages involved, Wickliff, the morning-star and har binger of the Reformation, arose in our borders. From his time, we have been favoured with a succession of preachers of the gospel and of witnesses to its truth and power. Not Can we wonder, if justice demanded the a few of these sealed their profession with utter extirpation and ruin of a people so their blood; and a much greater number highly favoured, so well instructed, so often suffered in the same cause, by fines, stripes. chastised and delivered, and yet so incorrigi- banishment, and imprisonment. But since bly ungrateful, daring, and obstinate! Is it the Revolution, and especially since the acnot rather wonderful to hear the Lord ex- cession of King George I. to the throne, the pressing a reluctance to execute the sentence spirit of persecution has been greatly reso justly deserved, and saying of such a peo-pressed and chained up. We are not now ple, How shall I give thee up? called to resist unto blood. Nor is there any Protestant country where religious liberty is | O fortunati nimium, sua si bona norint! Our constitution, the basis and bulwark of our civil liberty, is the admiration or envy of our surrounding neighbours. It cost our forefathers many struggles to bring forward and establish this national blessing; but we have enjoyed it so long, and so quietly, that we seem almost to forget its value, how it was obtained, or how only it can be preerved? Wo be to us, if God should succeed the desires and endeavours of those who are disposed to exchange it for licentiousness! Add to this our public prosperity.-While we have been principals in many wars, which have spread devastation and misery far and vide abroad, we have had uninterrupted eace at home; and know so little of the caamities of war, that were it not for the increase of taxes, it is probable we should not be soon weary of hearing of battles, and the slaughter of thousands, provided victory declared on our side. Our arms and our commerce have, almost like the ocean, encompassed the habitable globe, and we are become the grand mart and emporium of the earth. But what have been our returns to the Lord for all his goodness! May he not say of us, as of Israel, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me! Isa. i. 2. I attempt not to explain the unfulfilled prophecies in the Apocalypse, but the first, second, and third chapters of the prophecy of Isaiah are so obviously applicable to the present state of these kingdoms, that we need look no further to perceive both our sin and our danger. May the Lord soften our hearts for our own sins, the sins of professors of the gospel, and those national sins which strongly mark our character as a people! 1. The true Christian sees much cause of humiliation in himself. Though he cannot but take sorrowful notice of what passes around him, he is more ready to scrutinize and blame his own misconduct, than that of other men. He confesses that his best is defective and defiled. Though he exercises himself to maintain a conscience void of offence, and dares appeal to the Lord for the sincerity of his aims, he owns that in every thing he comes short. His obligations to the Redeemer are immense, and his sensations of gratitude, and exertions in his service, are vastly disproportionate to them: yet having accepted the atonement, and resting his hope of salvation upon Jesus, though his imperfections humble him, they do not discourage him. But he acknowledges, that if justice were strict to mark what is amiss, his own sins are so many and so great, that he could 435 have no right to complain, though he had a large share of the heaviest calamities incident to this mortal life. They who are thus minded are the chariots and horsemen of the mourn for their own sins, and the evils which land in which they live. They sigh and they cannot prevent. They have little thanks from the blind, careless, ungodly many around them. They are rather scorned and despised for their singularity, and unfashionable preciseness; but if this nation be spared from destruction, it will be for their sakes, and for the attention with which God regards their prayers. If we had no such persons amongst us, our fleets and armies would prove but a poor and precarious defence. But I trust their number is not small. They are dispersed up and down throughout the kingdom, and are the salt of the earth, which preserves us from total putrefaction. sent to the leading doctrines of the gospel, 2. By professors, we mean, those who asand usually attend where it is preached. I know this distinction is deemed invidious. We are sometimes asked-Why do you appropriate the term gospel to yourselves? Do not all ministers preach the gospel? Most certainly not. The doctrines from many pulpits are contrary, yea, contradictory. too many pulpits in our established church cannot be all right. Yea, the doctrines from They contradict the Articles and the Liturgy, which the preachers have solemnly subscribed. The Articles and Liturgy bear express testimony to the universal and total depravity of human nature, the Deity and atonement of the Saviour, the necessity of regeneration, a new birth, and a new life of sanctification, and of the abiding influences of the Holy Spirit of God, to awaken sinners, to produce faith, and to instruct, comfort, and establish those who believe. These points are essential to the scheme of the gospel, as it is set before us by the evangelists and professors-a title which includes all those apostles. They who espouse them are called whom I have already mentioned, but is extended to many more, or at least is assumed by them. Happy indeed would it be, if all who seem to agree in principles, were united in love among themselves, and exhibited in the sight of men, in their tempers, practice, and pursuits, a conversation becoming the gospel they profess. apostles there were those who, while they But in the days of the professed to believe in God, denied him by their works, who were enemies to the cross of Christ, and caused the good way to be evil spoken of, Phil. iii. 13; Titus i. 16. We lament, more than wonder, that it should be so now: for human nature is the same in all ages; and even among those of whom we hope better-contentions, divisions, the heat of party-zeal, the coldness of brotherly love, and a blameable conformity to the spirit and eustoms of the world, are but too visible. | contagion through the kingdom. Multitudes The sins of professors alone, if duly consi- in every degree of life, from the noble to the dered, might make us apprehensive that peasant, have adopted them. judgment is even at the doors. 3. There are likewise sins so generally prevalent, so familiar and habitual in every rank of life, that they may properly be called national; because, either by their nature or their frequency, they mark and distinguish our public morals. To enumerate these, would be a painful and arduous task: but my subject requires me to notice some of the most prominent and notorious. (1.) Infidelity.—Though the sophistry and machinations of the philosophers in France, and of those who style themselves the Illuminati in Germany, have more or less infected the whole of Christendom with their sceptical and dangerous sentiments, so that we hold them in common with many other nations, and though we have not like the unhappy French, openly and avowedly renounced the government of God; yet I fear that the worst kind of infidelity (which is still rapidly spreading through the land) is already become one of our national sins. Formerly, most of our freethinkers assumed the more modest name of deists; and though they rejected the scriptures, they professed a regard to what they called natural religion; they wrote likewise chiefly for men like themselves, of a speculative and inquisitive turn, and did not appear much concerned to proselyte the common people: they seemed to allow that the principles of Christianity, though not necessary to persons of their sagacity, might be useful to preserve the peace and order of society, and to keep the vulgar within some bounds of good government and subordination. I have myself known those who, upon this ground, regularly, or at least frequently, attended public worship; not that they desired or expected any benefit from it, but to set a good example to their wives, children, and servants, whom they thought either not competent to understand their nore sublime discoveries, or not fit to be enrusted with them. These champions like wise went forth singly to the combat; but now there is a strong compacted confederacy against all religion, both name and thing. Neither the mortal nor the immortal deists are much thought of at present. Philosophers have pushed their inquiries far beyond the narrow views of the deists, and proclaim themselves to be atheists. They tell us, that either there is no God, or that he does not take cognizance of human affairs. To relieve the consciences of men from those foreboding fears of a future judgment which are not easily separable from guilt, they boldly affirm death to be an eternal sleep. Though these and similar dreadful tenets, have not obtained the publicity and authority with us which they have in France they have spread like a Not that I ascribe the progress of infidelity chiefly to Thomas Paine, or to writers of a superior class in the same line; but they have brought it more into view. Long before the modern philosophers were born, the fool had said in his heart, there is no God, Ps. xiv. 1. Infidelity is congenial to human nature. Infidel writings, like the touch of Ithuriel's spear, have disclosed what for a time, was hidden or disguised. The spirits of many were prepared. They were infidels before, though for want of attention they scarcely knew it, or for want of boldness were afraid to own it. The effects are evident. With many people of fashion, infidelity is fashionable. Their dependents and servants imbibe their sentiments, and, so far as their ability reaches, imitate their practice. Every class of society downwards, tradesinen, porters, labourers, and hostlers, are no less pleased with thinking and acting without control, than their superiors. Thus the bonds of society are weakened; vice, idleness, impatience, murmuring, and insubordination are seen, wherever we turn our eyes. When will these things end? When men agree to cast off the fear of God, they will seldom long accord in any thing else. Man, in his natural state, is a wild creature; but while his conscience is not quite hardened, while he acknowledges a God, and expects a future state and a day of judgment, though he commits many evils, he is restrained from committing many more, and greater, to which his corrupt propensities would otherwise incline him, and from which he would not be deterred by mere human laws and penalties. Such a sinner may be compared to a lion in the Tower: but an infidel is a lion in the street. (2.) The great neglect of the obligations of religion, amongst those who have not explicitly cast off all regard to it, is a national sin. If a stranger from some remote part of the world, who understood our language, was to see and hear all that passes at a contested election, at our cockpits, gaminghouses, race-grounds, boxing-matches, and many other promiscuous assemblies, what judgment could he form of our religion? Or could he readily believe that we had any ! And yet we could not tell him that they were all infidels. Many who live in the habitual neglect or breach of the precepts of scripture, would still be thought Christians, though they have little, but the avowal of the name, to dis tinguish them from the most determined infi dels. And it is to be feared, that such Chris tians constitute a very great majority of the people of England. (8.) The contempt of the gospel of Christ, will, I fear, be found a national sin, with the exception of the comparatively few who cor- | seldom walk the length of a street, without 437 dially embrace it. I have already explained having our ears pained, and our hearts woundin what sense I understand the word Gospel.ed, by the bitter imprecations which thoughtWhen the doctrines of our established church, less creatures utter against themselves, or which in the main are conformable to the each other. confessions and standards of all the protestant horrid wickedness would be confined to the It might be expected that this churches in Europe, are faithfully preached, lowest and most abandoned of the common and especially when first introduced into a people. But it is far otherwise. Gentlemen parish, they usually cause a general alarm, and noblemen make a point of distinguishing they excite a general opposition. The gos- themselves from the vulgar by their houses, pel is shunned and dreaded like a pestilence, their dress, their tables, and their equipage; and the strongest exertions are made to pre- but many of them in their language take a vent its entrance, or to expel it, if possible. strange pleasure in degrading themselves to The ministers who preach it faithfully are a level with the vilest of the species; so that, stigmatized and misrepresented. We learn were it not for their exterior, we might be from Suetonius, Tacitus, and Pliny, that led to think that they had spent their whole the name Christian was once so extremely lives among stable-grooms and postilions; odious, that whoever dared to own it was and thus by their own proficiency and examsuspected as capable or guilty of the worst ple they harden and confirm in their wickedcrimes, though no proof could be brought of ness those whom they imitate. his having committed any. The word Methodist has a degree of the like effect in our day. It is not now, as when first imposed, the name of a particular sect or body of people, but is applied to all who preach and approve the doctrines of the gospel, if they are not. Dissenters. And it operates with a kind of magical force; the very sound of the word is sufficient to fill the minds of many people with prejudices against the truth. Neither learning, piety, an exemplary conduct, nor a regular compliance with the rules of the rubric, can always, or often, secure a minister from contempt, if the giddy world think proper to call him a Methodist. prefer those who will prophesy smooth things, The people Is. xxx. 10;) and in most places they have heir wish. Candour itself cannot deny, that there are in many parishes of this kingdom official shepherds, who have neither will nor skill to teach or watch over their flocks; and multitudes of people who, for want of proper instruction, have little more knowledge of Christianity than the Indians in America. Some of us have reason to be thankful to God and to our superiors in church and state, that we are not discountenanced or molested in the exercise of our ministry. But our path is not the ordinary road to approbation or preferment. There are not many evangelical clergymen who have benefices, and these have been chiefly bestowed by private patronage.* ness of God by common swearing, contributes The insult offered to the majesty and holigreatly to take off a sense of the heinous sin of perjury, or false swearing; an appeal to the God of truth in confirmation of a lie. This is the other branch of that swearing for which the land ought to mourn, and, sooner or later, must mourn. Perjury is emphatically one of our national sins. "The multiplicity of oaths, which are interwoven into almost every branch of public business, involves thousands in the habitual guilt of perjury. Many of them, it is true, do not necessarily lead to sin, because honest and serve them; but it is to be feared, a greater conscientious men may and do strictly obnumber deliberately and customarily violate these solemn obligations, and take them as often as imposed, without hesitation, and without any desire of complying with them. Not a few of these oaths are either so worded or so circumstanced, that it is morally impossible to fulfil them; and if a person was even to attempt it, he would be thought a busy-body or a fool; yet they must be tendered, and must be taken as a matter of form, when nothing more is expected or purposed on either side. wardens and constables who are annually The number of churchsworn is very great; and as these offices are chiefly held by rotation, in the course of a few years they take in a considerable part of the middling people in the kingdom. How many (4.) Because of swearing, the land mourn-or how few of them act up to the letter and eth, Jer. xxiii. 10. This generally prevailing enormity has two branches-First, Customary profane swearing, blasphemy, and execration, in common discourse. We can Upon the death of the late Mr. Romaine, Rector of St. Andrew, Wardrobe, and St. Ann's, Blackfriars, the Inhabitants united in a petition to the Lord Chancellor, in favour of his Curate, whom they wished to succeed him in the living: and the Lord Chancellor was pleased to grant their request. I mention this exception with pleasure: because I think it is much to the honour both This Lordship, and of the parishioners, the spirit of the oaths they have taken, will be known in the day when the secrets of all hearts shall be revealed. But it is now evident, that while many, like sheep, tread withforswear themselves because others have done out thought in the path of custom, content to so before them; and some are hardy enough to trifle with God and man for profit: the laws which enjoin and multiply oaths, do thereby furnish and multiply temptations to the sin of perjury. The frequency of oaths, the irreverent manner in which they are of ten administered, and the impunity with which they are broken, have greatly contributed to weaken the sense of every moral obligation, and to spread a dissolute and daring spirit throughout the land."* fore petitions and remonstrances were presented and repeated, till the tax was repealed. Can. we wonder that the calamities of the present war begin to be felt at home, when we ourselves wilfully and deliberately inflict much greater. calamities upon the native Africans, who never offended us? That is an awful word, "Woe unto thee that spoilest, and thou wast not spoiled; when thou shalt cease to spoil, thou shalt be spoiled," Isa. xxxiii. 1.. (5.) Oppression is a national sin, if the grievance be publicly known, and no constitutional measures adopted for prevention or relief. Charges of this nature have been brought against the exercise of our power, both in the east and in the west. I pretend not to say how far they are founded in truth, or exaggerated. I confine myself to a single instance, of which my own experience warrants me to speak. I have more than once confessed with shame in this pulpit, the concern I had too long in the African slavetrade. This trade, marked as it is with the epithet INFAMOUS by a vote of the House of Commons, is still carried on, and under the sanction of the legislature. Though the repeated attempts to procure the abolition of this trade have not succeeded, they have doubtless contributed to meliorate the condition of the blacks who are in a state of slavery in our West-India islands. The mode of their transportation thither from the African coast seems to be less tormenting and fatal than formerly. How far this trade may have been affected by the present war I know not. When I was engaged in it, we generally supposed, for an accurate calculation was not practicable, that there were not less than a hundred thousand persons, men, women, and children, brought off the coast, by the European vessels of all nations, and that an equal number lost their lives annually, by the wars and other calamities occasioned by the traffic, either on shore, without reaching the ship, or on shipboard before they reached the places of sale. It was also supposed that more than one half, perhaps three fifths of the trade was in the hands of the English. If the trade is at present carried on to the same extent, and I could proceed to further particulars, but nearly in the same manner, while we are my spirits are depressed, and I hope the delaying from year to year to put a stop to hearts of my hearers are duly affected by our part of it, the blood of many thousands of what I have already said. Is there any reour helpless, much-injured fellow-creatures, lief? Have we any ground to hope that the Is crying against us. The pitiable state of Lord will yet say of such a nation as this, the survivors who are torn from their nearest" How shall I give thee up?" I turn with relatives, connections, and their native land, pleasure to this more comfortable branch of must be taken into the account.-Enough of my subject. this horrid scene. I fear the African trade is a national sin, for the enormities which accompany it are now generally known; and though perhaps the greater part of the nation would be pleased if it were suppressed, yet as it does not immediately affect their own interest, they are passive. The shoptax, a few years since, touched them in a more sensible and tender part, and there (6.) A proud. boasting spirit, and a vain confidence in our strength and resources, is a prominent part of our national character. Though infidelity, irreligion, contempt both of the law and gospel of God, profaneness, perjury, and oppression, expose us to his vengeance,-though the judgments of God are abroad in the earth, and have fallen heavily on a great part of Europe,—and though his hand is evidently lifted up against us, yet few will see and acknowledge it, Isa. xxvi. 11. Instead of such a general spirit of humiliation as was awakened in Nineveh by the preaching of Jonah, so well becoming our sins and our situation, we still boast in our fleets and armies. Especially the Wooden Walls of Old England are spoken of as impregnable, and we still suppose ourselves to be sovereign lords of the sea. Some late providential dispensations were well suited to show us, not only the sin but the folly of this spirit: but the impression, if any, was transient; it soon wore off. The praise justly due to our admirals, officers, and seamen was readily offered; but unless the King had called us, as on this day, to unite with him in ascribing our success to the Lord of Hosts, who alone giveth the victory, even the verbal offering of praise to God would have been confined to a few. And still we boast. This arrogant spirit, and especially at such a time as this, is no small aggravation of all our other sins. • See Sermon on the gailt and danger of such a nation II. Yes, though we have many causes for trembling, we are not without causes for a humble joy, and thankfulness. 1. I hope the occasion of our present assembling is a token for good. We are met in consequence of a royal proclamation, to join in spirit with our King, who, perhaps while I am speaking, may be entering St Paul's Cathedral, attended by the royal fa mily, both houses of parliament, and many of the nobility and principal persons of the court. He goes to make the most public and |