Are we then to conclude that our forefathers have been merely passive in the establishment of this great nation? Did their blood never flow when hostile fleets swept in wrath around her virgin shores? Did their sword cleave to its inglorious scabbard, when the voice of God's providence in the tumult of conflicting nations, called aloud for His scourge and judgments of desolating wars? Have they rested indolently in their secluded homes, instead of boldly traversing the rough bosom of the swelling seas to find out some land, where in colonial enterprize they might plant in a new soil those thoughts, which stamp themselves upon that numerous progeny which they have reared up in all parts of the world? Whilst each man sought, as rightfully he might, his own limited happiness in his home, did he forget his faith, his holy creed, and life-pervading Gospel? No-every voice of every protestant freeman in America, and all our colonies, answers-No. Although the dispensation for the extension of our national influence came from God, the carrying out of its principles was committed to each man's agency, and like the broadest rivers on which commerce delights to repose, the voluminous power of the empire has resulted, and must result still, from the individual drops of single effort collected into one vast whole. Every one then as a Christian and a Briton, should consider himself embarked in the great enterprize of doing the work of God in the world, both at home and abroad.

2.-It cannot for a moment be surmised by the Christian, that the existence, power, and influence of his nation are things with which God has no concern,

or that in contradiction to the whole experience and assertions of the divine scriptures, man can form empires as he pleases, or elevate his own nation to distinction, and depress others, without any control from heaven, or in resistance to the Divine will. Far, very far from this is the lesson which the Bible teaches. That book contains the principles of the Divine government in this world, and their application. There we learn, that if the individual Christian is living under an inspection so minute and momentary, that even the hairs of his head are numbered, much more are nations in their rise, progress, or decay, under the exact and scrutinizing control of an Omniscience, whose power and will none can resist.1 God divides and limits, he brings on wars and shakes the scourge of pestilence over the nations. He permits revolutions, and restrains their wrath; they are the ministers of his punishment, or the agents of his designs; kings are his servants, and national minds his stewards of vengeance or mercy unto others. Pharoahs arise to display his power, and Nebuchadnezzars are called forth as fierce meteors to afflict and purify the nations. Empires are the mechanism of his designs in the world. The passions of men, intent only on their own gratification, are the reins and bits with which He guides human affairs, to the consummation of his own purposes. And nations are elected to be his servants, or are rejected from becoming his agents, as their conduct or disobedience deserve. But his designs are not impeded by their refusal to obey his will. Another nation is then elected and made the depository of truth, whilst the end and cause of the truth advances with the same

2

majestic indifference for the agent, to the perfection of its determined effects in the world.

2

2

24.

Hos. ii.

6, ad f.

17-22.

For many centuries one nation alone possessed the peculiar privileges of Revelation, but when God had determined to extend this divine knowledge to all the world, the Jews, as they refused nationally to become the missionaries of the cross,1 were rejected from this Luke xxi. dignity for a stated period of time, and to other nations has been entrusted the deposit of truth in the glorious message of salvation. No one nation however has been exclusively selected for this purpose. The command to preach by the word and missionaries is addressed to all. Some are chosen for this effect, but if they refuse the call, or judge themselves unworthy of the trust by corrupting the sacred treasure, they have been, and are still removeable at the pleasure of Him, Rom. xi. who as the parent of truth is determined that this offspring of his will and mind, the doctrine of the cross, shall not be impeded in its progress by the resistance, obstinacy, or folly of man. The seven Churches of Asia, where are they? The purity of Rome, when St. Paul addressed her in his epistle, and committed to her charge the mysteries of the righteousness of Christ, where is it now? And Greece, in the glories of her sacred eloquence; and Carthage, and the African Churches in the power of their episcopal thoughts; and the Greek Church which ought to have effected so much; with the vivacity of France, and the dignity of Spain; all these have successively been laid aside by God, in dispensing the riches of his grace to the world, because they have been faithless trustees of his bounty. To us, the British people then, the election at present

openly belongs, of preaching the Gospel to every creature. To ourselves, in our own national distinctions of four nations united together in one compact state, and to those colonial relations who, as children, have left us to establish empires and kingdoms elsewhere in the world, there is committed at this time, the holy commission, of being the prime ambassadors from the God of truth unto the world. They are our own privileges as Britons, that I am anxious to bring forward in these Dissertations; and on the security and enlargement of our wealth and power, in the discharge of our national functions, that I hope to labour, in some few important points, in which our duty individually demands from us all most strenuous and increasing exertion.

It would be easy to take up several branches of the great subject thus presented to our minds, and shew how at home and abroad, our duty, as well as our security, consists, in enlarging the foundations of our Church, that we may by it fulfil the intentions of Jehovah to the world, and retain our own privileges. But this design would be too extensive, and on such topics as these, the great difficulty is not to say much but to speak little. Our labour is to compress, and not to enlarge. The subject is man in all his past, his present, and future history-the world in its entire horizon, and in its life of six thousand years, and in its future destination, is moving before us; and the mind filled with such an object, has the additional difficulties of a few pages of print in which the magnitude of the subject is to be stated, and the imperfect medium of language, a method of human communication always expanding, in which to explain them.

3.-I have selected for my Dissertations the subject of those prophecies, which belong exclusively to the restoration of the Jews to their own land, and which are still legitimately unfulfilled. In this enquiry, I shall ascertain the truth of their future return, and our own duty. And if in these times, when the national depths of Continental Institutions are broken up for future change, the efforts of Christians are directed more intensely and actively to assist their return, politically and spiritually, to Judea; the imperial honours we have hitherto gained will be as nothing compared with that security, victory, increased power, and national and individual wealth, that we shall obtain, and in which each man in his thoughtful home must participate, by having thus judged ourselves worthy to be the chosen instruments in the hand of God, for the reconstruction and restoration of the people of His own soul to the land and cities of their fathers.

Every influence therefore that reason can exert, and every assistance we can bestow on all the missionary enterprizes of the Church, it is our emphatic duty and best privilege to use and give. We may also from Prophecy derive much encouragement in this activity of our faith. The study of this subject is a most useful and practical part of Christianity, and I make a few observations upon this topic as it arises out of that text, which so clearly predicts a universal kingdom of religious opinion in the world.