application of these words sink deeply into our hearts! It will not become us to say, either to God or man, that we have indeed sinned, but there are greater sinners than ourselves. It is true the French Convention, and many others who are infatuated by the same spirit, have exceeded the ordinary standard of human impiety and cruelty. But I hope there are multitudes in that nation, who, though they are overawed by their oppressors, and dare not speak their sentiments, yet are mourning in secrecy and silence for the abominatious which they cannot prevent. But the French have not sinned against such advantages as we possess. They were long the slaves of arbitrary power, and the dupes of superstition; and of late they have been the dupes of madinen assuming the name of philosophers. We, on the contrary, were born and educated in a land distinguished from all the nations of the earth, by the eminent degree in which we enjoy civil and religious liberty, and the light of Gospel truth. These privileges exceedingly aggravate our sins; and no just comparison, in this respect, can be formed between us and other nations, until we can find a people who have been equally favoured, and for an equal space of time, by the providence of God, and have likewise equalled us in disobedience and ingratitude.

The most dreadful enormities committed in France, are no more than specimens of what human depravity is capable of, when circumstances admit of its full exertion, and when the usual boundaries and restrictions necessary to the peace and welfare of civil society are judicially removed. The influence of daring infidelity and profligate example, aided by the peculiar state of their public affairs, have broken, in many instances, the strongest ties of social and relative life, and extinguished the common feelings of humanity.

Yet the unhappy French, though our inveterate enemies, are not the proper objects of our hatred or our scorn, but rather of our pity. They know not what they do. Let us pray for them. Who can tell but God, to whom all things are, possible, and whose mercies are higher than the heavens, may give them also repentance? And let us pray for ourselves, that we may be instructed and warned by their history; for, by nature, we are no better than they.

I. But it is time to attend more immediately to our own concerns. The professed purpose of our meeting to-day, is to "humble ourselves before Almighty God, and to send up our prayers and suplications to the Divine Majesty, for obtaining pardon of our sins, and for averting those heavy judgments which our manifold provocations have most justly deserved; and imploring his blessing and assistance on the arms of his Majesty by sea and

land, and for restoring and perpetuating peace, safety, and prosperity to himself and to his kingdom."* I hope these expressions accord with the language and desire of our hearts.

And now-Oh! for a glance of what Isaiah saw, and has described! Oh! that we, by the power of that faith which is the evidence of things unseen; could behold the glory of the Lord filling this house; that we could realize the presence and the attitude of his attendant angels? They cover their faces and their feet with their wings, as overpowered by the beams of his majesty, and conscious, if not of defilement like us, yet of unavoidable inability, as creatures, to render him the whole of that praise and homage which are justly due to him. Oh! that by faith, we could enter into the spirit of their ascription-Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is filled with his glory! If we were all thus affected, as the prophet was, surely each one, for himself, would adopt the prophet's language. Or if a comfortable hope in the Gospel prevented us from crying out, "Wo is me, I am undone !" we should, at least, say (the Hebrew word might be so rendered) I am silenced, I am struck dumb! I am overwhelmed with confusion and shame; for I am a man of unclean lips myself, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.

If we have a degree of this impression, we shall not be at leisure to perplex ourselves concerning, men or measures, the second causes, or immediate instruments of our calamities. The evil of sin, contrasted with the holiness and glory of God, will engross our thoughts. And we shall ascribe all the troubles we either feel or fear, to our own sins, and the sins of those among whom we dwell.

1. Let us first look at home. I am a man of unclean lips. I am a sinner. This confession suits us all, and is readily made by all who know themselves. A person approaching London from the neighbouring hills, usually sees it obscured by a cloud of smoke. This cloud is the aggregate of the smoke, to which every house furnishes its respective quota. It is no unfit emblem of the sin and the misery which abounds in this great metropolis. The Lord said of the Amorites, at a certain period, "Their iniquity is not yet full." I hope the measure of our iniquity is not yet full; but it is filling every day, and we are all daily contributing to fill it. True believers, though, by grace, delivered from the reigning power of sin, are still sinners. In many things we offend all, in thought, word, and deed. We are now called upon

*Title page of the appointed Form of Prayer. Rom. vi. 14.

+ Isa. vi.

Gen. xv. 16.

to humble ourselves before God, for the sins of our ignorance, and for the more aggravated sins we have committed against light and experience; for those personal sins, the record of which is known only to God and our consciences; for the defects and defilements of our best services; for our great and manifold failures in the discharge of our relative duties, as parents, children, husbands, wives, masters, or servants, and as members of the community. Our dulness in the ways of God; our alertness in the pursuits of. our own will and way; our indifference to what concerns his glory, compared with the quickness of our apprehensions, when our own temporal interests are affected, are so many proofs of our ingratitude and depravity. The sins of the Lord's own people are so many, and so heightened by the consideration of his known goodness, that if he was to enter into judgment with them only, they could offer no other plea than that which he has mercifully provided for them-"If thou, Lord, shouldst mark iniquity, O Lord, who could stand? but there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared."*

2. It is easy to declaim against the wickedness of the times. But only they who are duly affected with the multitude and magnitude of their own sins, can be competent judges of what the prophet meant or felt, when he said, "I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. We ought to be no less concerned (though in a different manner) for the sins of those among whom we dwell than for our own. We shall be so, if, with the eyes of our mind, we behold the King, the Lord of hosts; because his glory, which should be the dearest object of our hearts, is dishonoured by them.

I think this nation may be considered as the Israel of the New Testament, both with respect of his goodness to us, and our perverse returns to him. He has been pleased to select us, as a peculiar people, and to show amongst us such instances of his protection, his favour, his grace, and his patience, as cannot be paralleled in the annals of any other nation.

We have no certain account when the name of Jesus the Saviour was first known in this Island; it was probably at an early period of the Christian era. But we do know, that after the long dark night of superstition and ignorance which covered Christendom for many ages, the dawn of returning Gospel light was first seen amongst us. From the time of Wickliffe, the morning star of the Reformation, the true Gospel has been known, preached, received, and perpetuated to this day. There have been times when they who loved this Gospel have suffered for it. They were

* Psalm cxxx. 3. 4.

preserved faithful in defiance of stripes, fines, imprisonment, and death itself. But those times are past. We enjoy not only light but liberty, and the rights of conscience and private judgment, in [a degree till of late unknown.

We have likewise been long favoured with peace, though often principals in wars which have been very calamitous, both to our enemies and to the nations which have taken part in our affairs. Our intestine broils, at different times, have contributed to form and establish our present happy constitution. We breathe the air of civil liberty. Our insular situation and naval force, by the blessing of God, have preserved us from foreign invasions; and when such have been attempted, the winds and seas have often fought our battles. Our wide-spreading and flourishing commerce has raised us to a pitch of opulence which excites the admiration and envy of other nations. Great-Britain and Ireland appear but as small spots upon a globe or map; but our interests and influence extend, in every direction to the uttermost parts of the earth.

Will not the Lord's words to Israel apply, with equal propriety, to us? "What could have been done to my vineyard, that I have not done? Wherefore, when I looked for grapes, brought it forth wild grapes ?"*

How is the blessed Gospel improved among us? This would be a heavy day to me, if I did not believe and know, that there are those among our various denominations, who prize and adorn it. If these could be all assembled in one place, I hope they would be found a very considerable number; and, for their sakes, and in answer to their prayers, I humbly trust that mercy will still be afforded to us. But compared with the multitudes who reject, despise, or dishonour it, I fear they are very few. Too many hate it with a bitter hatred, and exert all their influence to oppose and suppress it. The great doctrines of the Reformation are treated with contempt; and both they who preach and they who espouse them, are considered as visionaries or hypocrites, knaves or fools. The Gospel of God is shuned as a pestilence, or complained of as a burden, almost wherever it is known.

Wisdom is, indeed, justified of all her children.† The Gospel is the power of God to the salvation of them that believe. It recalls them from error, from wickedness, and from misery; guides their feet into the ways of peace, and teaches them to live soberly, righteously, and godly in the world. But in the number of those who profess to receive it, there are too many who confirm and increase the prejudices of those who speak against what they Luke, vii. 35. Rom. i. 16. Titus, ii. 12.

* Isa. v. 4.

know not. Alas! what extravagant opinions, what fierce dissentions, what loose conversation, what open offences, may be found amongst many who would be thought professors of that Gospel which only breathes the spirit of holiness, love and peace!

What, then, must be the state of those who avowedly live without God in the world? I need not enlarge upon this painful subject, which forces itself upon the mind, if we only walk the streets, or look into the newspapers. It is not necessary to inform my hearers that infidelity, licentiousness, perjury, profaneness, the neglect and contempt of God's sabbaths and worship, abound. The laws of God, and the laws of the land, so far as their object is to enforce the observance of his commands, are openly and customarily violated in every rank of life. In a day when the Lord of hosts calls to weeping and mourning, thoughtless security, dissipation, and riot, are the characteristics of our national spirit.* The loss of public spirit, and that impatience of subordination so generally observable, so widely diffused, which are the consequence of our sins against God, are, in themselves, moral causes sufficient to ruin the nation, unless his mercy interposes in our behalf.

I should be inexcusable, considering the share I have formerly had in that unhappy business, if, upon this occasion, I should omit to mention the African slave-trade. I do not rank this amongst our national sins, because I hope, and believe, a very great majority of the nation earnestly long for its suppression. But, hitherto, petty and partial interests prevail against the voice of justice, humanity and truth. This enormity, however, is not sufficiently laid to heart. If you are justly shocked by what you hear of the cruelties practised in France, you would, perhaps, be shocked much more, if you could fully conceive of the evils and miseries inseparable from this traffic, which I apprehend, not from hearsay, but from my own observation, are equal in atrocity, and, perhaps superior in number, in the course of a single year, to any or all the worst actions which have been known in France since the commencement of their revolution. There is a cry of blood against us; a cry accumulated by the accession of fresh victims, of thousands, of scores of thousands, I had almost said of hundreds of thousands, from year to year.

It is but a brief and faint outline I have attempted to give of the present state of this nation in the sight of Almighty God, and of the sins for which we are this day assembled to humble ourselves before him!

*Isa. xxii. 12. 13.