circumstance always desirable when we would deduce practical inferences for the direction of the conduct either of individuals or of nations.

The following observations, with a view to such inferences, will naturally divide themselves, like the principles from which they are deduced, into two branches. And in regard to the former of them-viz. prosperity-taking the word in its extended sense, so as to include both what is usually called success, good fortune, and great advantages, and also great and signal interpositions of a gracious Providence,-the history of this nation for many years past suggests abundant cause to its inhabitants to adore the wise Disposer of all events, and lift up their hearts to Him with grateful songs of praise and thanksgiving. There is not, I suppose, one of this learned audience who has not anticipated this reflection, or who will not allow, that here I might, with great propriety, dilate on the numerous blessings which we have long actually enjoyed in this happy island: the temperature of the climate, the fertility of the soil, the unparalleled extension of our commerce, the concomitant and prodigious influx of riches, the increased population, the genius of the inha

bitants, particularly that part of them who occupy their business in the great waters, and direct with so much capacity and courage the floating bulwarks of this country, both for the purposes of wealth and defence-then add the inestimable privileges of civil and religious liberty-and we form an aggregate which may well be called the glory of this country, and the envy of the neighbouring

nations.

Nevertheless, at the head of all these, and without the smallest hesitation, I would place the blessed Reformation from the ignorance and superstition, as well as the folly and wickedness, of Popery. It is through the Reformation that we have for so long a period enjoyed the Gospel of Christ planted among us in its purity, and his Church established by the Legislature itself, with a scriptural simplicity, precision, and dignity, which I do verily believe have never been exceeded by any dominant body of Christians since the Apostles' times.

Every syllable here advanced, respecting the prosperity of this country, is justified by our history in so remarkable a manner, that even its darker periods of plots, rebellions, civil wars, papal

tyranny, and republican fury, ought in no wise to weaken the general impression of our having been in general a happy and highly-favoured people.

I do not mean that there have not been several interruptions of the national freedom and harmony, or that these interruptions were not at the time awful admonitions from Almighty God to our forefathers, for their repentance and amendment; but that, besides this, on account either of the shortness of the duration of some of those interruptions, or the magnitude of the danger of others, or the completeness of our deliverance from them all, they give just occasion to pious minds, not merely for humiliation under the displeasure of Almighty God, but also for grateful acknowledgment of the Divine compassion and interposition.

Unquestionably, the interruption, on the whole the most lamentable, of our national prosperity 'took place during the civil wars of Charles I., and the succeeding usurpation of Cromwell; the mournful issue of those unhappy contentions proving, beyond contradiction, that the fanaticism and hypocrisy of sectarian republicans and levellers were as fatal to the health and vigour of a truly Evangelical Establishment, as ever could be the

tyranny and the superstition of the most bigotted Roman Catholics. In no period of our history were there made greater pretences to love of liberty and to purity of religious faith and practice, or fewer efforts in a rational and consistent way to advance and confirm the Protestant interest. In private life, no doubt, there existed multitudes of pious and exemplary citizens among all the contending parties; yet the whole structure of the reformed religion, as well as of our civil constitution, considered as a systematic national establishment, was grievously wounded during the fury of the Rebellion it actually expired with the dying Sovereign; it remained buried under the ruins of the British Constitution as long as the Usurper lived; and, notwithstanding a multitude of ostentatious declarations of superlative regard for pure Christian doctrine and Christian freedom, it never revived again till the restoration of the Monarchy, and of all the legal authorities in Church and State.

The Papal advocates of those times beheld our confusions with a malignant satisfaction, and afforded help to one side or the other just as they conceived their concurrence with either would most favour the restoration of the Romish hier

archy. Those few of them who joined the royalists certainly hoped they saw a leaning to Popery in the court and bench of Bishops; and the many who coalesced with the republicans as certainly believed the King to be an incurable heretic-that is, a sincere and determined protector of the Reformed Church of England; and, accordingly, Charles I. in his proclamations reproaches his rebel subjects for forming so unnatural a junction with the common enemy of the civil and religious constitution. In fact, both classes of the Romanists acted in perfect consistence with their own respective views: both detested the Reformation most cordially; and both were greedy to offer incense once more on British ground to the Roman Pontiff: their difference consisted only in the manner in which they hoped to rebuild the altars of anti-Christ. Moreover, no inconsiderable portion of the Romanists, during these disastrous disturbances, felt little anxiety respecting the prevalence of either party. Faithful to the cause of bigotry and superstition, they predicted, in almost any event of the contention, the downfal of the English Ecclesiastical Constitution; and they flattered themselves that on its ruins