able. Never will our country and nation be safe, never will Britain or Virginia be out of the reach of some executioner of divine vengeance, till there be a public general reformation: and never will there be such a reformation, “until the Spirit be poured up. on us from on high."

Here I must not forget a consideration of still greater weight ; unless the Spirit be poured out upon us, thousands of Britons, thousands of Virginians, must perish forever-perish not in their own country, but in hell-not by the sword of the French, or Indian instruments of destruction, but by the sword of divine justice, and the horrid instruments and torture in the infernal regions. This is a much more melancholy consideration than the ruin of our country. The ruin of souls, immortal souls, forever! -without any hope of deliverance !-from among the means of salvation !-oh! what horrid ruin is this! Yet this will be the doom of thousands, unless the Spirit be poured out, to turn and sanctify them. Thousands declare by their conduct, whither they are going-they proclaim aloud, they are bound for hell: and nothing but the Almighty Spirit can stop them in their mad career. Some of these unhappy mortals may be our friends and relatives; at least they share with us in the same human nature, and therefore should be dear to us. Nay, are not some of ourselves of that number? Even the suspicion of this may strike us aghast, and put us upon thoughtful inquiries into the matter.

Hence it appears, the Spirit of God is the most important blessing, both to our country and our souls, both with regard to . time and eternity; and without it, both our country and our souls will be lost in the issue.

Hence therefore you may be directed, what to make the principal matter of your prayers to God. Pray for our king, for the ministry, for the parliament, for our governors, councellors, and all our officers, civil and military: pray for the protestant churches, for our allies, and especially for the king of Prussia ;* pray for our army and navy, and for our poor exposed fellow-subjects on the frontiers: pray for good regulations among ourselves, for the weakening of our enemies, and for the speedy return of a well-established peace pray for our own reformation, and for the conversion even of our enemies, whether French papists, or heathen savages: but, above all, pray for an outpouring of the

Spirit. This is the grand, radical, all-comprehensive blessing: and if this be granted, every thing else will go well with us.

To conclude, let me recommend a prudential to you, which you generally observe in temporal affairs; and that is, to prepare for the worst. Perhaps our religion may not be that cheap thing to us in time to come, which it has been hitherto perhaps it may yet cost us our blood and lives. This, we may expect, will be our doom, if we should fall under a Popish government. And where is the glorious company of martyrs to be found among us? Who of you is willing to embrace a stake, and ascend to heaven in flames, for the sake of Jesus? Jesus, who died for you, will expect that some in this place will die for him, if they should ever be brought to the trial. And who of you is prepared to give this painful, this last evidence of your love and fidelity to him? Now you have time to deliberate upon it, and put yourselves in readiness: and it is prudence, as well as duty, to improve your time for this end, lest you be surprised unprepared.

Alas! what shall impenitent sinners do, if matters should come to this pass? If they part with Christ, rather than with their lives, they are undone, unless they retract the ruinous choice. And if they should die martyrs in his cause, even this would not save them. An unholy soul cannot ascend to heaven, even from a stake. "If I should give my body to be burnt," saith St. Paul," and have not charity," love, he means," it profiteth me nothing."* What then remains, O sinners, but that while you enjoy a few days of peace and liberty, you lay them out in earnest endeavours to obtain sincere religion-a religion that will stand the severest test? and then you are safe, come what will.

I will not take upon me to determine, what will be the issue of ,this war. But I am afraid, it will issue much to the disadvantage and mortification of Great Britain and her colonies.

From the

rapid conquests of France, and our own disappointments and defeats, we have reason to fear, either that a desperate war will be continued, till we are undone ; till Britain is stripped of some or all her colonies, and perhaps herself become a conquered province of France: or that she will be obliged humbly to petition for peace; which we may be sure will not be granted, but on

H

* 1 Cor. xiii. 3.

terms very disadvantageous; and which will therefore tend to weaken her more and more, and allow her enemies time to increase their strength, and enable them to finish with greater ease the conquests they have begun. The protestant religion is also in very threatening danger: for wherever the arms of France or Austria prevail, there, we may be sure, it will be oppressed. The Popish powers threaten that small part of Europe and America that is free, with the yoke of civil and religious tyranny; while Sweden, Denmark, the Seven United Provinces, and other protestant states, lie asleep, and do not exert themselves to ward off the blow. Perhaps we are born to see such tragical revolutions as these and if so, what awaits us but poverty, and slavery, and the loss of all that is dear to us; and are we prepared for such trials as these? or are we so stupid, as not to be alarmed, and excited to prepare, even by the peradventure of such things coming upon us? Nothing but real vital religion, which will stand the trial of fire and faggot, and the tortures of the inquisition, will be an effectual preparative for such a time. Let us, therefore, examine whether our religion be such. If it be, we may bravely bid defiance to all the powers of earth and hell, to work our final ruin, and be secure and triumphant in him that loved us, who will make us more than conquerors. But if not, alas! we have no room for one hour's ease and security but should be anxiously labouring to flee from the wrath to come, whether in this world, or the next. Let us now" seek the Lord, while he may be found; and call upon him, while he is near :"* and in this way, we may yet escape into the chambers of divine protection, before the gloomy storm breaks upon us.

In the midst of these gloomy views, methinks a ray of dubious hope darts through the threatening cloud, and bids us take a little courage, and mingle some cheerful expectations with our fears. Who knows but the Lord will yet turn, and repent, and leave a blessing behind him? Who knows but he may yet surprise us with an effusion of his Spirit, to purify us, instead of pouring upon us the vials of his displeasure, which we deserve? His ways are unsearchable; the turns of his providence often surprising and unaccountable; and his mercy above all our thoughts. Perhaps he may suffer the power of France to rise to such a formidable height, and us to be broken and reduced to an helpless extremity,

*Isaiah lv. 6.

that his hand may be the more manifest in her overthrow, and in our deliverance. Perhaps the extremity of calamity may bring us to the knee, as humble penitents before our offended Sovereign, and turn us to him and then he may appear as our deliverer, when we are sensible of our dependence upon him, and that the help of man is vain. I am encouraged to hope for deliverance in such an extremity, from a remarkable passage in Deuteronomy the thirty-second chapter, "The Lord shall judge his people, and repent himself for his servants, when he sees their strength is gone, and there is none shut up, or left." Our strength is not yet gone : we have still a powerful army and navy and there-* fore are full of self-confidence. But when this atheistical confidence is mortified, and we are brought to acknowledge our need of the alliance of Heaven, then God may rise for our deliverance. There is need of preparation for deliverance, as well as for trials and calamities; and to deliver us before we are prepared for it, would not prove a blessing in the issue. To deliver a thoughtless, presumptuous, impenitent people, while they continue such, would be to encourage their presumption and impenitence, and to make them more daring in sin, and in the neglect of God and religion. To this purpose, St. Peter exhorts us, to "humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, that we may be exalted IN DUE TIME."* There is a due time for exaltation or deliverance; and if we should be exalted before the time, we should only be exalted upon a precipice, where we should soon turn giddy, and fall again with greater violence. Let us therefore long and pray not only for deliverance, but that: we may be prepared for it, so that it may be a real blessing to us in the issue such a deliverance may God grant us in due time, through Jesus Christ. Amen.

SERMON 66.

A TIME OF UNUSUAL · SICKNESS AND

MORTALITY IMPROVED.

JEREMIAH V. S....O Lord, are not thine eyes upon the truth? Thou hast stricken them, but they have not grieved: thou hast consumed them, but they refused to receive correction: They have made their faces harder than a rock: they have refused to return.

MY fellow-mortals! So I call you, because mortality is the certain doom of us all. This is a truth at all times evident; but now, methinks, it is more striking than usual, when death has made such ravages among us; when it has made breaches upon sundry of our families, and swept off some of them almost entirely and when we who survive are in daily expectation of a visit from this tremendous conqueror. Therefore, my dear fellow-mortals! under this character would I address you this day as a mortal, whose breath may be stopped the next day, or the next hour; I would speak with more seriousness than, alas ! is usual to me, to you, mortals, about the great concerns of immortality! If I would do any thing to save myself and them that hear me, I see I must do it quickly. I have for some time been languishing and indisposed myself, and the contagious disease made its entrance into my family; but, through the amazing and distinguishing kindness of God, which I desire publicly to celebrate, and, I hope, in answer to prayer, its progrèss has been stopped. And what better return can I make to my gra cious Deliverer, than to devote that life, which he has spared, to his glory, and the service of your souls, with increasing zeal and industry? The blind and secure world has accused me of making too great ado about religion: and when my mind is impressed with realizing views of death and the supreme tribunal, I cannot but accuse myself: but, oh! it is upon a very different account. I never feel one uneasy thought from the excess of my zeal, or

* Mr. Baxter was wont to say:

"I preach as if I ne'er should preach again,

And as a dying man to dying men."

And oh, that I may imbibe the same spirit, and enter the pulpit always under its influence !