darkened by the least shadow of ignorance, and superior to all possibility of mistake."

There appears in the Bible to be no exception whatever made, in the denunciation of widespread ruin and desolation coming upon the world, in favour of any people, except the literal Israel, and a spiritual people typified in Revelation vii. by that nation. In other words, there appears to be no exception made, but of the Jews, who as a nation are to be restored to their own land; and of the humble and faithful followers of the Lord Jesus, who in some wonderful and miraculous manner will be shewn to be objects of preserving mercy. In the one instance, as it regards the Jews, the deliverance will be NATIONAL; in the other, as it regards believers, it will be INDIVIDUAL. former, the Lord says, Though I make a full end of all nations whither I have scattered thee, yet will I not make a full end of thee: "And I will gather you from all nations, and from all places whither I have driven you, saith the Lord; and I will bring you again into the place whence I caused you to be carried captive" (Jer. xxx. 11; lxvi. 28; xxix. 14). And with respect to the latter it is said, " And He shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet; and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other."" Then shall two be in the field; the

66

With respect to the

one shall be taken, and the other left. Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left" (Matt. xxiv. 31, 40, 41).

These two exceptions appear to be all that we are warranted from the word of God to suppose will be made-namely, the literal and the spiritual Israel; Israel after the flesh, and Israel after the Spirit. The rest of the world, there is every reason to conclude, will, like the Antediluvians at the time of the Flood, like the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah when fire came down from heaven, and like the Jews in the siege of Jerusalem, be given up to God's righteous vengeance.

As it regards Britain, it may indeed with reason and with truth be urged, that, in the fearful trial which the nations of Europe passed through in the last war, she was preserved.

Hostility and hate were charged to roar

Where else they would-but not upon her shore." And it may be argued, Have we not reason on this account to cherish the hope that God will still preserve her? To this I would reply

1st. The fatal link has since this time appeared, that has again identified us AS ONE OF THE TEN PAPAL NATIONS.

The bulwarks and defences which the wisdom and piety of our forefathers set up against the encroachments of Popery, and which, it has often

been thought, had for ever dissevered England from all connection with the Romish church, the Liberalism of the present day (which can foster with nearly equal partiality both Popery and Infidelity) has demolished. In this respect, the wisdom of man and the wisdom of God have been at variance; and that in a very similar manner to what they were in the time of Jeroboam. Jeroboam, in his wisdom, on the separation of the ten tribes, of which he was made king, ordered two golden calves to be set up, one in Dan and the other in Bethel; and commanded the people to go there to worship, and not to the temple in Jerusalem. The consequence of this political expediency was, that "it became sin unto the house of Jeroboam, even to cut it off, and to destroy it from the face of the earth" (1 Kings xiii. 34); and it was ultimately the cause of the whole nation being carried into a captivity from which they have not to this day returned! In like manner as this act of Jeroboam's subjected Israel to the judgments of God on idolatrous nations, so the admission of Papists into power, in almost in almost every department of state-let the political expediency of it have been what it may, let the arguments for it on the grounds of the rights of conscience have been ever so plausible-has united us as a nation once more to Papal Rome, to the Babylon of the Revelation, and to a participation in her

awful judgments. It is impossible to say to what extent this fore-doomed apostasy may yet go on increasing in this kingdom, and thus still more decidedly identify it as a Papal kingdom, before these judgments shall take place; but it is probable, according to present appearances, that it will be to very great extent.

As it regards the Lord's dealings with England, the warnings against this apostasy have been clear, distinct, and intelligible; and, looking at the subject in the light of God's word, it would have been well if these warnings had been attended to. For, "let the rank of England be what it might under the Protestant sovereign, it always sank under the Popish let its loss of honour, or of power, be what it might under the Popish sovereign, it always recovered under the Protestant; and more than recovered; was distinguished by sudden success, public renovation, and increased stability to the freedom and fortunes of the empire."

In the admirable preface to the Rev. Mr. Croly's work on the Apocalypse, which has since been published as a separate tract, he proves the truth of this observation, by very summarily tracing the history of British monarchs, from Elizabeth, in whose reign Protestantism was first thoroughly established, to the kings of the house of Hanover. "Mary," he says,

" left a dilapidated kingdom; the nation worn out with disaster and debt; the national arms disgraced; nothing in vigour but Popery. Elizabeth, at twenty-five, found her first steps surrounded with the most extraordinary embarrassments at home, the whole strength of a party including the chief names of the kingdom, hostile to her succession; in Scotland, a rival title, supported by France; in Ireland, a perpetual rebellion, inflamed by Rome; on the continent, the force of Spain roused against her by the double stimulant of ambition and bigotry, at the time when Spain commanded almost the whole strength of Europe. But the cause of Elizabeth was Protestantism; in that sign she conquered. She shivered the Spanish sword ; she paralyzed the power of Rome; she gave freedom to the Dutch; she fought the battle of the French Protestants: every eye of religious suffering throughout Europe was fixed on this magnanimous woman."

"Charles I. ascended a prosperous throne: England in peace; faction feeble or extinct; the nation prospering in the full spirit of commerce and manly adventure. No reign of an English king ever opened out a longer or more undisturbed view of prosperity. But Charles betrayed the sacred trust of Protestantism. formed a Popish alliance, with the full knowledge that it established a Popish dynasty.

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