insult your common sense with their approbation of French wisdom, and French principles? What means that variety of blasphemous tracts, published at no smallexpence, and industriously and secretly dispersed throughout the kingdom, for the evident purpose of deluding the people into a belief of the doctrines of French atheism and anarchy? What mean those numerous clubs, styling themselves "Societies for Constitutional Information," and " Corresponding Societies," lately established throughout Great Britain and Ireland, holding confidential, secret, and treasonable intercourse with the French revolutionists? Rack your invention, until it is no longer capable of exertion, and ask yourselves, can all this art, this disguise, this secrecy, this intimate and cordial co-operation with the sworn enemies of your God, your religion, your country, and your firesides, mean you any good? And finally, to bring my questions more home to your feelings, that you may see and judge for yourselves, and for those whom you are bound by reason, by compact, by religion, and the never-ceasing voice of nature to protect and comfort ; I say, ask yourselves, what mean those frequent panegyrics made by some of our first orators, and persons of the highest rank and fortune, in two august assemblies, upon French illumination, and French measures? What means that incessant opposition to the wisest and best-concerted plans of your sovereign, and his parliaments, for the protection of your lives and for

tunes? What mean those repeated combinations of all ranks to support the most notorious traitors, and to snatch them out of the hands of law and justice? What mean that sullen discontent, that language of detraction, which decries the merit of the most brilliant successes against French anarchy, and the well-earned fame of our greatest heroes? What mean those audacious insults offered to his Majesty, those attempts upon his sacred life, even when going to the discharge of his public duty? And, above all, what meant that awful period of dreadful suspense and dismay, with which the heart of every friend to his country was smitten, during the mutiny at the Nore, &c.? From what source, what " bottomless pit" of anarchy and rebellion, did that most tremendous event" ascend?" Did it arise from any just cause of discontent, given to the brave defenders of their country on board that fleet? No there was none, but what a dutiful application would have remedied.-Did it arise from the long-tried honesty and gallantry of British tars? No: those exalted virtues never could beget a monster so mis-shapen and frightful.

BRITONS! exercise, for a moment, your good sense, and examine the volume of evidence that stares you in the face, and you must be convinced, with me, that it was engendered in the putrid soil of French bribery and French atheism; and nourished, reared, and brought to maturity by the daily Jacobin papers, the seditious speeches in **********, and by the

dark clubs and associations of traitors and anarchists; who, in strict imitation of their French brethren, have, under the plausible but fraudulent pretence of reforming your excellent constitution, determined to overturn it from its foundation; and with it your reason, your conscience, your morals, and your religion; and to legalize confusion, strife, and every evil work in their stead.

BRITONS! I will trespass upon your patience yet a few moments longer, because I feel the impulse of incumbent duty, arising from the love of our country, its constitution and laws. Let me yet farther seriously ask you, where was the eye, during this awful period, that did not see the fate of your country suspended over the precipice of ruin? Where was the honest heart, that was not stricken with horror and dismay? that did not tremble at the prospect of an unfavourable, a lamentable issue of that dreadful mutiny? It was a mutiny that threatened your immediate destruction; ready to deliver over your wooden walls, with tens of thousands of your seamen, your only hope of national safety, into the hands of your sworn and implacable enemies. Here suffer me to ask you again, seriously, by whom were you saved; snatched, as it were, in a moment, from impending perdition? Were you saved by the aid of allies? No, you had none ! Were you saved by your own wisdom or prowess? No: your principal strength was in the hands of the mutineers; and they, fearless of your remain

*

ing force, were out of your reach, and your councils were reduced to a state of trembling despondency! Then let me ask you, how were you preserved? What beneficent power interposed for your salvation? I will tell you, BRITONS, in truth and honesty. It was the great "JEHOVAH," the "Alpha and Omega," the "beginning and ending; THE ALMIGHTY* who created the universe, has governed it, by his providence, from the beginning; and shall continue to govern it by his righteous will, to the end. It was HE," in whom we live, and move,and have our being†; and without whose will, a "a hair of our heads cannot fall to the ground." It was HE, who "walks in the whirlwind and directs the storm,' It was HE, who walked in the "whirlwind" of mutiny; turned the hearts of the mutineers to a true sense of their duty; and said to the fiend of the bottomless pit," "Hitherto shalt thou "come,and no farther, and here shall thy proud " waves be stayed." It was HE, who discomfited your enemy in Bantry Bay, when that enemy had eluded your utmost vigilance, and whom you had been seeking in vain. It was HE, whose mighty arm fought your battles, and gave you the victories at St. Vincents, the Texel, and on the coast of Ireland; and in his great mercy crowned your exertions with success to save your sister kingdom. And it was his secret wisdom, and Almighty Spirit, that

66

Rev. i. 8. 11.

Acts, xvii. 28.

inspired the counsels, and gave strength to the arms of that first of heroes, Admiral Nelson, at the mouth of the Nile, crowned him with one of the most important and critical victories that ever was gained, and through him made you, perhaps, instrumental in saving the world, from Jacobin atheism and anarchy. O-BRITAIN, highly favoured among the nations of the earth! let me entreat you, by those great, unexpected, and UNMERITED deliverances, and those recent and ineffable blessings with which the God of heaven has been pleased to distinguish you, as a nation, never to suffer them to be effaced from your memories, but, contemplating them often, prostrate your souls before the throne of the LIVING GOD, the great JEHOVAH, with that submissive humility, that awful reverence, that heartfelt gratitude, and those thanksgivings and praises, which, I trust, you know to be his due, and your most especial duty lest, in his just displeasure at your ingratitude and unrighteousness, he should withdraw the protection of his mighty arm, and leave you a prey to your all-devouring enemy, thebeast ascended out of the bottomless pit.'

But it is now time to proceed to the consideration of the second question arising from this verse, by which this great truth of the prophecy will abundantly be confirmed. Indeed every subsequent verse, and almost every part of it, will afford such demonstrations, as to leave no possibility of doubt respecting it, in the unprejudiced mind.