told you the noble works that I did in their days, and in the old time before them."

I protected you through the dangers of the ocean, and preserved "you in a land of deserts. I bade the solitary place be glad through you, and the desert itself to rejoice and blossom as the rose." When you were but a weak and helpless people, I made the Heathen your friends, who had power to destroy you. "I gave you a plentiful country, and bade you eat the fruits thereof"-You then saw that "this was my doing," and, in those early days, were not ashamed to confess that "the right hand of the Lord had brought mighty things to pass." When you looked back on the dangers you had escaped, your grateful souls were lifted up in praises to me, who spoke the fierce ocean into peace around you, and made the gloomy wilderness become the cheerful abode of men. When you saw the bounteous earth bring forth her willing increase, you acknowledged that your lines had fallen in pleasant places; yea, that you had received a goodly heritage."

But you had not long entered in before" ye defiled my land, and made my heritage an abomination." I gave you Plenty; but Plenty begat Ease; and Ease begat Luxury; and Luxury introduced a fatal corruption of every good and virtuous principle; insomuch that you forgot the very hand from which you received all things. You forgot to say, "Where is the Lord" that hath done so much for us? Or where is he that brought us through the fierce ocean, that made the Heathen our friends, that protected us

in the wilderness, and caused the desert around us to smile?

For the space of an hundred years (a period of happiness which no nation before you could ever boast of) my patience bore with you, while you enjoyed a continual prosperity; being almost entirely strangers to the "sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war, and the sight of garments rolled in blood." But, in proportion to my mercies, has your guilt increased. You have become more and more forgetful of me, and of the exalted privileges I called you to enjoy.

"Pass over the isles of Chittim; send unto Kedar, and see if there be any such thing as this." Look through all the countries of your Popish and Heathen neighbours; and see if the former have changed their superstition, or the latter" their gods, which yet are no gods!" Such a change would have been wisdom in them; but what have you done? "You have even changed your glory for that which doth not profit! Be astonished at this O ye heavens! and be ye horribly afraid; for this people have committed two evils," and have been guilty of double foolishness! They have neglected the exercise of their holy Protestant Religion, trusting to the lying vanities of this life;" and have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, to hew out for themselves cisterns, broken cisters that can hold no water." In the midst of light they have chosen darkness, and corrupted their children by their sad example.

I have warned you once for these things, and twice have I spoken unto you, saith the Lord; but you have neither kissed my rod, nor humbled your

"The showers

selves under my chastisements. have been withholden and there hath been no latter rain; yet you have refused to be ashamed. My judg ments have been abroad upon the earth, but you have not learned righteousness."

Wherefore, the young lions from the forest have roared upon you. They have made your land waste, and your cities are burnt, without inhabitant. The children of Noph and Tahapanes have broken the Crown of your head." I have let the savages of the woods loose upon you. They rage in all your borders. Your country is depopulated, your villages burnt up, and thousands of your miserable brethren, tortured, murdered, or carried into barbarous captivity. The voice of lamentation is heard, as of a woman in travail; even the voice of your bleeding country," that bewaileth herself, and spreadeth forth her hands; saying, woe is me now for my soul is wearied because of murderers.-I have sent a nation upon you from afar, whose language you know not; a mighty nation from the north country; rising up from the sides of the earth; that lay hold on the bow and the spear; whose voices roar like the sea; who are cruel and have no mercy; at whose fame your hands wax feeble, and one says to another, go not out into the field, nor walk by the way, for the sword of the enemy is on every side,

This is otherwise rendered "feed on thy Crown." But, however it be understood, the words, and the whole description that follows, are too remarkable not to bring to our mind all the horrors of an Indian war, and the detestable custom of scalping, or cutting off the skin of the head, to be sold for a price.

and whosoever goeth out shall be torn in pieces. And behold! they eat up your harvest and your bread, which your sons and daughters should eat; and they eat up your flocks and your herds and your vines and your fig-trees; and they impoverish your fenced cities wherein you have put your chief trust."

And should any one say, why doth the Lord these things to his people? This shall be your answer. Like as ye have forsaken me, and shewn yourselves unworthy of your holy religion and exalted priviledges, so I have forsaken you, and delivered you over to be chastised with an iron rod by these your fierce enemies. For will ye not fear me, saith the Lord, who have done so great things in your behalf? Will ye not tremble at my presence, whom earthquake, fire, and storm, and all the elements obey? Why will ye trust in lying words, saying "The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord;"we are Britons, we are Protestants? What signify these names, when you have forgot the cause of your country, and made your religion a reproach among the Heathen around you? Will ye steal, will ye commit adultery, will'ye defraud, will ye walk after covetousness, will ye profane my name, will you disregard my righteous judgments, will you remain indifferent to the preservation of your inestimable privileges; and then will ye come and stand before me, .in my house which is called by my name, and say we are Britons, we are Protestants, as if this would justify you in all these abominations?

The very fowls of the heaven act a more consistent part than you. They observe the signs and the

seasons which the Lord hath appointed for them. But you have neither regarded my former judgments, nor have my latter more severe ones awakened your attention, and made you wiser. Even in the very sight of "Sinai's burning mount;" in the midst of the most complicated miseries; when blood and desolation are all around, you have neither reformed your lives, nor regarded the distress of your country. An evil spirit of unbelief hath gone forth among you, setting every present danger at a distance. You have refused to "play the man for the cities of your God," or to defend that glorious plan of public happiness delivered down to you by your fathers. Strifes, discords, hatred, uncharitableness, licentiousness, civil broils, calumnies and contention about trifles, have been uppermost in your thoughts; while your most valuable and essential interests have been made a secondary concern, or perhaps no concern at all, or the concern only of those who wanted the power to serve them.

In such circumstances what doth it signify to say "The Law of the Lord is with us;" we are a distinguished people; ours is the reformed religion, and ours the enjoyment of civil liberty? Were you truly sensible of the immense value of these supreme of blessings, your practice would have been conformable; and your souls would have been enflamed with all the ardours of the brave, on the least approach of danger towards them.-You likewise say, you are wise; and boast of your superior improvements. But what marks of this can you shew? Even the heathens themselves have outdone you in wisdom