countenanced under the idea of wit and good company.

The most lewd and lascivious practices too, the most abandoned violation of conjugal chastity, in both sexes, have, and do, in a more particular manner, disgrace the present age; 'even beyond the example of that profligate æra, when the monarch on the throne, after having basely tarnished his own honour by becoming the pensioner of France, corrupted the morals of his people, by introducing every species of Gallic frivolity and debauchery among them. Again; intemperance and luxury, the most boundless and extravagant pride, the most daring profanation of the name of God and his sabbaths, and the most open disregard to truth, may be said to have erected their thrones among us. The methods of defrauding, cheating, and harrassing, sometimes in evasion of the law, and sometimes under its sanction, are become so subtle and refined, that even the wisest of our senators are unable to find adequate remedies for them; and it may justly be remarked, that the multiplication of our penal laws, beyond the example of any other age or nation in the world, alone demonstrates the height of corruption to which we are arrived.

But

But what can be said more to enhance the guilt of the inhabitants of this land, than that they have sinned and rebelled against God, after they have been, like the Jews of old, nourished and brought up by him? Was not the goodness of God displayed in a singular manner amongst us, at the time of the Reformation, when we were snatched like a fire-brand out of the Romish fiery furnace, by a child and a woman, I mean by King Edward the Sixth and his successor in promoting the Reformation, Queen Elizabeth? And how often, since that time, have we escaped the bloody zeal of Rome? How often have we been rescued from their hellish plots and contrivances? So that when we consider the variety of mercies which have been conferred upon us, we must be void of all sense, as well as gra titude, if we do not laud and magnify the divine bounty.

Again; God hath placed us in a fruitful land, abounding with the choicest temporal blessings, whether we respect necessity or delight. And we have also blessings of a still higher nature, such as belong to our souls and immortal spirits, such as relate to our happiness in a better world, when all the quarrels and jarring interests of this shall be at an end.-In short, we have all things, but thankful hearts and grateful lives.

For,

For, instead of growing better for our advantages, we exactly verify what was said of old, "Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked." Such is our practice: we spurn against our Benefactor, our Preserver, our Deliverer. We have been sharers in extraordinary mercies, but there is no sign or trace of it in our behaviour. We talk as atheistically, we swear as loudly, we game as profusely, and in every thing we behave as irreligiously, as if we had never experienced the bounty of heaven or been shielded by the protecting arm of Providence.

Once more: Judgments have been blended with mercies, and yet we continue to sin, under and against both. God hath been pleased to try us in all ways: we have had experience of all the methods and dispensations of his Providence, of health and sickness, plenty and scarcity, peace and war, order and disorder, deliverance and distress. I might remind I might remind you, that besides the dreadful visitations of fire and pestilence, which this country has often in former times experienced, we have also had the shaking of the earth under our feet, and the contending elements spreading desolation over our heads, and involving thousands in ruin.

And

And yet, though these have been the wrathful indications of an offended God, where is the person that considers his ways, alters his course of life, and becomes a sincere proselyte of religion? Are our national sins at all diminished? Are our churches at all fuller? Is not rather the reverse a notorious and melancholy truth? Is again the mis-spending of the Lord's day, that fatal source of ruin and corruption, duly discouraged and corrected? Are blasphemous oaths seldomer heard in the day, or do our streets less resound with nocturnal revels? Are our places of public resort less numerous, less expensive, or less frequented? Do not the eternal disputes and extravagant stipends of our various theatrical performers, whether native or imported, throw an indelible disgrace upon the sense of the nation, which encourages, protects, and supports at so enormous an expence, a race of often abandoned, and always useless triflers, and even entombs them when dead with more than royal pomp, amidst the hallowed shrines of prelates, statesmen, heroes, and kings.

And surely, when things are come to this pass, that God's judgments prove ineffectual, yea, rather that they harden us in our wicked practices, we may justly conclude, that sin is arrived

arrived at its full growth, and consequently is but too nearly ripe for destruction.

Again: Shamefacedness and modesty are restraints, which even nature herself hath stamped upon the minds of all men, and where these remain, there is some hope of reclaiming of fenders. But, where sin is bold and daring, where it lifts up its voice on high, and looks defiance, the case is desperate indeed. Apply then this observation to ourselves. Will it not make one tremble, to see how men, proclaim their sin as Sodom, are ambitious, as it were, to be seen, bring their villanies on the stage, act them publicly, and even challenge applause? Many sins are so far from being a reproach, that they are even thought creditable and honourable; especially in what relates to the commerce of the two sexes, and what is usually called by the gentle name of gallantry, which fatally gilds over what, in times of less refinement, were thought great and crying sins, for which the land mourned.

Nor again are modesty and shamefacedness less out of fashion, even with many of that sex, which always should be, and once was, the most eminent for them. Education and good-breeding were formerly designed to make young per

VOL. III.

sons