all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: but the word of the Lord endureth for ever!

And shall we be so blind and selfish as to suppose, that all the rest of the nations shall fall, and we alone be preserved? Amen! Amen! May my King and my Country live for

ever!

We readily grant, therefore, you see, MY COUNTRYMEN, that the corruptions of Christianity shall be purged and done away; and we are persuaded the wickedness of Christians, so called, the lukewarmness of professors, and the reiterated attacks of Infidels upon the Gospel, shall all, under the guidance of infinite wisdom, contribute to accomplish this end. The lofty looks of lordly Prelates shall be brought low; the supercilious airs of downy Doctors and perjured Pluralists shall be humbled; the horrible sacrilege of Non-residents, who shear the fleece, and leave the flock thus despoiled to the charge of uninterested hirelings that care not for them, shall be avenged on their impious heads. Intemperate Priests, avaricious Clerks, and buckish Parsons, those curses of Christendom, shall be confounded. All secular Hierarchies in the Church shall be tumbled into ruin; lukewarm Formalists, of every denomination, shall call to the rocks and mountains to hide them from the wrath of the LAMB. Infidels, seeing the prophecies accomplished before their eyes, shall submit themselves to the long-resisted, but gentle yoke of the Gospel. Wicked and openly profane men, Men of Rank, especially, these corrupters and debauchers of the lower orders of society, shall be converted, and become righteous, or swept from the earth with the besom of destruction. The invidious disdain of illiberal Sectarists shall be succeeded by equal and universal benevolence; and the LORD JESUS CHRIST alone shall be exalted in that day*. The Bible, MY COUNTRYMEN, the

* It may be very much questioned whether the united wisdom of men be equal to such effectual reformation in Church and State as may be thought perfectly consistent with the purity and simplicity of the Gospel. In civil matters, it may be there is no government devised by human wisdom, better calculated to promote the liberty, prosperity, and happiness of a country than our own, by King, Lords, and Commons, supposing all abuses displaced. Nor do I see any valid objection to the three orders in the Church, of Bishops, Priests, and Deacons. It is certain they have prevailed from the days of the

Bible, stripped of every human appendage, shall rise superior to all opposition; and shall go down with the revolving ages of time, enlightening the faith, enlivening the hope, enkindling the love, enflaming the zeal, and directing the conduct of men, till the world shall be no more.

"The cloud-capt towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherits shall dissolve,
And, like the baseless fabric of a vision,
Leave not a wreck behind:"

But the promises and threatenings of the Holy Writings shall be receiving their awful completion, upon Believers and Unbelievers, throughout those never ending ages, which shall commence when the present scene of things shall be fully terminated. Let MY COUNTRYMEN, therefore,

Apostles, in some form or other. But here we have abundance of things to be removed, which are inconsistent with the scriptural model. And if our Governors, ecclesiastical and civil, are determined to hold fast what they have gotten, and suffer no abuses to be rectified; the great HEAD of the Church, it may be fully expected, will arise, ere long, and plead his own cause in slaughter and blood. It is morally impossible that the present degenerate state of things should continue another century. Without a thorough reformation, both in civil and religious concerns (and even such a reformation is big with danger) a much shorter time must subvert the present order of things, rot only through Europe in general, but in England particularly. GOD grant we may have wisdom to do that of our own accord, which must otherwise be done by constraint. When the iniquity of the Amorites is full, their enemies will receive commission from above to enter their land, and to kill and destroy.

The charges and denunciations against the several culprits mentioned in the above page may seem too severe to some gentle spirited persons, who can call evil good and good evil; but in my opinion, fall greatly below the propriety of the case. The offending Clergy are the curse and the bane of the country, and the wrath of GOD shall smoke against the faithless shepherds of CHRIST's flock.—Men of rank likewise are sometimes uncommonly blameable. I myself have known some, who have corrupted and debauched the whole neighbourhood where they lived. The late L-d S-h was a pest in this way. The late S--r W-m M--h also did much mischief among the young men and women all around the place where he resided for several miles. No young person, of more decent appearance than ordinary, could well escape his allurements. Boys and girls were equally his prey. We have many now living, also, who are extremely culpable; and when the scourge of Heaven visits the land, it shall fall peculiarly

"Read and revere the Sacred Page, a Page
Where triumphs immortality; a Page
Which not the whole creation could produce;
Which not the conflagration shall destroy;
In nature's ruins not one letter lost."

In the mean time, be persuaded also to reflect upon our respective situations. Suppose that we who believe in the SAVIOUR of mankind are mistaken? Upon your own principles we are safe. But suppose you are mistaken? Your loss is immense. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? You know who it is that hath said too-He that believeth on the SoN hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the SoN shall not see life, but the wrath of GoD abideth on him-he is condemned already!—Whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder. Is there no danger to be apprehended from these, and similar declarations, with which the Sacred Writings so largely abound? We are persuaded there is danger, and such as is of the most serious kind which can befal a rational creature.

"Know'st thou th' importance of a soul immortal?
Behold the midnight glory: worlds on worlds!
Amazing pomp! Redouble this amaze;

Ten thousand add; add twice ten thousand more;
Then weigh the whole; one soul outweighs them all;
And calls th' astonishing magnificence

Of unintelligent creation poor."

Treating, with just contempt, therefore, the scoffs and sneers (for solid arguments we know they have none) of the whole unbelieving body of our countrymen, whether among the nobility and gentry of the land, or among the ignoble vulgar, the beasts of the people; our determination is, whatever we gain or lose beside, by the grace of GoD, to secure the salvation of this immortal part. No harm can happen to us in so doing. We are secure in every event of things. If the fourscore scourges of the ALMIGHTY, the sword, famine, noisome beasts, and pestilence, should receive their commission to run through the land, we are yet assured it shall be well with them that fear GOD. Sound religion, rational piety, solid virtue, and a lively sense of the divine favour, will injure no man. They will render us respcted, at least by the

wise and good, while we live, and be a comfortable evidence of our felicity when we die*. In the mean time, if it be enquired where present happiness is to be found? May we not say with confidence,

"No doubt 'tis in the human breast,

When clam'rous conscience lies at rest,
Appeas'd by love divine:

Where peace has fix'd her snow-white throne,
And faith and holy hope are known,

And grateful praise erects her shrine.”

After all, suppose there should be no future existencewhat do we lose?-But, if there should be a future state?"and that there is, all nature cries aloud through all her works"-then what shall become of the philosophic Infidel; the immoral Christian; and the mere nominal Professor? If the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?

"What can preserve my life! or what destroy!

An angel's arm can't snatch me from the grave:
Legions of angels can't confine me there."

yet we are unmoral govern

Reflect then, MY COUNTRYMEN, upon your situation. Be the Scriptures true or false; be JESUS CHRIST a vile impostor, or the only SAVIOUR of the world; deniably reasonable creatures, and under the ment of GOD. This is no mere notion, that may be true or false; but a plain matter of fact, which every man may be sensible of by looking into his own bosom. Natural religion, therefore, at least, must be binding upon us. And that also requires, on pain of the highest penalties, that we should deny ungodliness, all impiety and profaneness—and worldly lusts, all irregular secular pleasures and pursuits—and live soberly, chastely, temperately;-righteously, doing strict justice in all our dealings, between man and man, and shewing mercy to

* When that fine writer, and pious author, Mr. WILLIAM LAW, came to die, he seemed to enjoy the full assurance of faith: 66 Away with these filthy garments," said the expiring Saint; "I feel a sacred fire kindled in my soul, which will destroy every thing contrary to itself, and burn as a flame of divine love to all eternity."

This learned man, in the latter part of his life, degenerated into all the fooleries of mysticism; and there is some reason to suppose his extravagant notions might be one mean of driving the celebrated GIBBON into a state of infidelity.

every child of distress to the utmost of our power-and godlily, religiously, piously, worshipping the DIVINE BEING CONstantly and conscientiously in public and in private, and zealously endeavouring to please him in every part of our conduct. Deism, as well as Christianity, requires all this. We gain nothing then, but lose a great deal, by rejecting the merciful dispensation of the Gospel, and having recourse to the religion of nature*. For natural religion, equally with revealed, condemns all immoral men; under the penalty of incurring the utmost displeasure of our MAKER.

"But then you have the satisfaction to think there is no Devil: by rejecting the Bible you have at least got clear of this bug-bear, with which we frighten children and old women!"

If we should ask, how you know there is no such fallen spirit? You can give no rational answer. Are you ac

* What a picture does VOLTAIRE draw of the condition of man? and, indeed, though it is very melancholy, it is very just, upon his own principles, that the way of salvation revealed in the Gospel has no foundation in truth.

"Who can without horror," says this sophister, "consider the whole earth as the empire of destruction? It abounds in wonders; it abounds also in victims; it is a vast field of carnage and contagion!-Every species is without pity; pursued and torn pieces, through the earth and air and water? In man there is more wretchedness than in all other animals put together. He smarts continually under two scourges, which other animals never feel; anxiety and listlessness in appetence, which make him weary of himself. He loves life, and yet he knows that he must die. If he enjoy some transient good, for which he is thankful to heaven, he suffers various evils, and is at last devoured by wormis. This knowledge is his fatal prerogative; other animals have it not. He feels it every moment, rankling and corroding in his breast. Yet he spends the transient moment of his existence, in diffusing the misery that he suffers; in cutting the throats of his fellow-creatures for pay; in cheating and being cheated; in robbing and being robbed; in serving that he may command; and in repenting of all that he does.-The bulk of mankind are nothing more than a croud of wretches, equally criminal and unfortunate; and the globe contains rather carcases than men. I tremble upon a review of this dreadful picture, to find that it implies a complaint against PROVIDENCE; and I wish that I had never been born!"

Let any man consider well this declaration; afterwards proceed to take a view of the last three months, and dying scene of VOLTAIRE, and then let him say what this old Sinner ever gained by his boasted Infidelity and Philosophy.