fathers, in the reign of Elizabeth. We have flung wide the gates of the constitution, to the firm adherents of a foreign potentate, allegiance to whom they consider their paramount duty. Yea, some are for opening them wider still, so as to admit Jews, Turks, infidels and heretics of all descriptions. In a word, we have left our first love, and committed fornication with the ungodly nations of the continent. We have loved strangers, and after them we will go. We have grown enamoured of Gaul, and received into our bosom Delilahs, that have shorn our locks, and lopped our strength. We have, with eminent ingratitude to JEHOVAH, formed a close friendship with that nation, his enemy and ours, from whom he had graciously delivered us. Thus, virtue is going out of us; principle is going out of us; and it is well if the LORD be not leaving us likewise. Be instructed, O England, lest his heart depart from thee; lest he make thee desolate; a land not inhabited.?

It is to be assumed as a fixed principle of God's jurisprudence, that the heavy lighting down of his arm shall sooner or later ever attend iniquity, whether national or individual.

This was abundantly manifested in the misery that befel our first parents on the original transgression in the judgment that whelmed in one wide watery grave the inhabitants of the antediluvian world; in the fiery desolation discharged upon the wicked cities of the plain; in the overthrow of

1 Note XIV.

2 Note XV.

Nineveh, Babylon, Tyre, Sidon, and ancient Rome: yea, in the summary destruction eventually executed on guilty Jerusalem. In all these tremendous visitations, the Almighty plainly declared, that iniquity should not go unpunished; but that sin is the disgrace, and ultimately the ruin of any people. Individual offenders are frequently reprieved in this life; reserved unto the day of judgment to be punished; but, as it has been well observed, to nations there is no hereafter, therefore they must be punished in the present world.

Recollect, now, all the various vices and enormities with which this nation is but too chargeable. Lukewarmness in religion, drunkenness, infidelity, lying, swearing, and perjury; Luxury, voluptuousness, and impurity, political agitation and oppression, and remember how all these sins are denounced in Scripture. "I would thou wert cold or hot; so then, because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.”1 "Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight. Therefore, as the fire devoureth the stubble, and the flame consumeth the chaff, so their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust: because they have cast away the LORD of Hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of

1 Rev. iii. 15, 16.

Israel, therefore is the anger of the Lord kindled against his people, and he hath stretched out his hand against them." &c. 1 "Woe unto them that rise up in the morning, that they may follow strong drink; that continue until night, till wine inflame them! And the harp and the viol, the tabret and pipe, and wine, are in their feasts; but they regard not the work of the LORD, neither consider the operation of his hands. Therefore hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure; and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoiceth, shall descend into it.2" "Ye that put far away the evil day, and cause the seat of violence to come near; that lie upon beds of ivory, and stretch themselves upon their couches, and eat the lambs out of the flock, and the calves out of the midst of the stall; that chant to the sound of the viol, and invent instruments of music, like David; that drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the chief ointments, but they are not grieved at the affliction of Joseph. Therefore now shall they go into captivity with the first that go captive, and the banquet of them that stretched themselves shall be removed.-Therefore will I deliver up the city, with all that is therein. And it shall come to pass, if there remain ten in one house, that they shall die."3 "For the land is

full of adulterers; for because of swearing the

land mourneth." 4

1 Isaiah v. 20-25.

3 Amos vi. 3-9.

"Moreover the LORD saith,

2 Isaiah v. 11-14.

4 Jerem. xxiii. 10.

Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with stretched-forth necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet: therefore the LORD will smite with a scab the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion,-and it shall come to pass, that instead of sweet smell there shall be a stink; and instead of a girdle a rent; and instead of well-set hair baldness; and instead of a stomacher a girding of sackcloth; and burning instead of beauty. Thy men shall fall by the sword, and thy mighty men in the war. And her gates shall lament and mourn; and she, being desolate, shall sit upon the ground."1 "As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, they which lead thee cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths. The LORD standeth up to plead, and standeth to judge the people. The LORD will enter into judgment with the ancients of his people, and the princes thereof; for ye have eaten up the vineyard, and the spoil of the poor is in your houses. What mean ye that ye beat my people to pieces, and grind the faces of the poor? saith the LORD of Hosts." 2 this, O ye that swallow up the needy, even to make poor of the land to fail,-the LORD hath sworn by the excellency of Jacob,

the

forget any of their works.

"Hear

Surely I will never

Shall not the land

tremble for this, and every one mourn that dwelleth

1 Isaiah iii. 16-26.

2 Isaiah iii. 12-15.

therein ? " 1 "Sin is a reproach to any people." ? "The LORD turneth a fruitful land into barrenness, for the wickedness of them that dwell therein." 3 "For the nation and kingdom that will not serve thee (i. e. his Church) shall perish." 4 "Behold, the eyes of the Lord are upon the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from off the face of the earth." 5

Reader, put all these solemn denunciations and the signs of the times together-namely, the revival of popery; the passion for innovation and revolution; the separation from the world of the Lord's people; the general expectation of some great event at hand; and say, is there not but too much reason for serious apprehension? Is not the consequence clear from the premises, that this kingdom, unless it timely and truly repent, shall be overtaken with reproach, and punishment, and ruin? And if these things be so, is it not the part of wisdom and prudence to inquire, what is our appropriate DUTY at such a period? and how may we escape those things which are coming on the earth? The exhibition of this shall be attempted in the next ensuing chapters.

1 Amos viii. 4-8.

4 Isaiah 1x. 12.

3 Psalm cvii. 34.

2 Proverbs xiv. 34.

5 Amos ix. 8.