be made to our civil constitution, yet may it truly be said to have attained as great a degree of perfection, as in any human institution, and in an institution of so complicated a nature, can reasonably be expected. If we look round us, and compare our own condition in this respect with any of the neighbouring nations; if we look backwards, and compare our present situation with that of our forefathers at any former time; we shall see abundant reason to rejoice in our lot, and to magnify the goodness of God towards us. If we reflect on the great and signal mercies, the many wonderful deliverances, vouchsafed in extreme perils to this state and nation; we cannot but perceive and acknowledge the Divine protection perpetually exerted in our behalf. Our civil and religious liberties have generally been exposed to the same conflicts, and have run the same hazard together: but every attempt to overthrow them hath in its consequences, by the providence of God, manifestly tended to the more perfect establishment of both. And still more sensible must we be of our infinite obligations to Almighty God, if to all these instances of Divine favour transmitted to us through the hands of our fathers, we add his late mercies,— those recent examples of his goodness, "which our eyes have seen," and we have ourselves experienced; when in a long, a perilous, and destructive war, begun with disadvantage, and for some time continued with loss and disgrace on our part, it pleased God to support us, and to strengthen us against our adversaries; in the midst of despondency to inspire us with courage, in the midst of

dissention with unanimity; to go forth with our fleets and armies, and to crown us with victories in every quarter of the globe; to blast the designs of great, numerous, and powerful enemies, and through dangers and difficulties to conduct us to success and security, to conquest and peace. "Happy art thou, O Britain: who is like unto thee, O people saved by the Lord! who is the shield of thy help, and the sword by which thou hast triumphed: Thine enemies are found liars unto thee, and thou hast trodden upon their high Flaces."

What rerum then Sill we make unto the Lord for all his benefs that he hath bestowed upon us! I believes as to take heed to ourselves, lest we forget the ting and lest they ever depan from our bars:" to acknowledge and alore God's great, yet undeserved. goodness to us; do de seuste of these pecular Bessings, and to kel our own sigilar bugginess; is maintain and v dere in cer 22s a proper esteem and wweeee, a ire des mi xi fe our most bày signa, and var ms are civil polity; ne z serkei a v bres and conversation Dose fus & godiness and honesty, which on Jos suis may justy le trectal fnm us.

eces is te ist place. Live a due 808 à 20 Bestmalle dressing which we enjoy a de het al de Costel virt hati dissipated the deserts a la segun and the gross SLÄPOS & headers, win the berry of the À CLA 21. viel la thread is fo

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the insupportable bondage, of Popery. prize these great blessings as we ought, and are actuated with a spirit becoming them, we shall be ever zealous to maintain and secure them to ourselves; and, when occasion offers, and as far as our influence extends, to impart and communicate them to others to which great work of zeal and charity the providence of God seems at this time expressly to call us, by opening an immense field to this pious labour, in the vast accession made to our foreign dominion among barbarous and unenlightened nations: we shall be careful not to disgrace our profession by vicious practices, or intolerant principles, equally inconsistent with it; not to make our religion merely a subject of debate, a mark of distinction, or an occasion of division and faction; but to apply it to ourselves as a rule of life, as a motive to piety, to charity, and to every good work, as the strongest incitement to every thing that is great and generous, that adorns or exalts human nature.

A due sense of our obligation to Almighty God, as citizens and members of the best regulated polity, will engage us to a conscientious discharge of every branch of duty arising from that relation; to aid, assist, and concur with our governors, each according to our several stations and abilities, in pursuing the great ends of government; in procuring the peace, the security, the welfare of the whole community; in promoting order, unanimity, probity, and justice, among our fellow-citizens; in discouraging and restraining all immorality, and profaneness, and every kind of vice, as the

bane of society, the sure destruction of states and empires; and always to testify our regard to the laws of our country by a ready and cheerful obedience to all that are in authority; by reverence to magistrates of every degree, and by distinguished reverence to the Highest.

In a word, the great and manifold blessings, which have been bestowed on us beyond any other nation in the world, evidently require of us, that we show ourselves not altogether unworthy of these gifts, by a proper use and improvement of them; they demand of us proportionate returns of duty and thankfulness, of praise and adoration, to Almighty God, the sole author of them; of honour, submission, and gratitude, to our governors, by whom, under God, they are dispensed unto us; of peace and quietness, unity and charity, among ourselves; of all piety and virtue from every one of us in particular: these are the proper fruits, which must reasonably be expected, and will certainly be required of those, who have been so highly favoured of God, and enjoy in their full extent all the advantages of the best government and the purest religion.

SERMON IV'.

PROV. XXIV. 21.

My son, fear thou the Lord, and the king; and meddle not with them that are given to change.

In this collection of Proverbs, or instructive sentences, of the wise King of Israel, (the most curious and valuable remain of antient wisdom, even setting aside its Divine authority,) maxims of religion and of civil prudence are promiscuously thrown together, in detached aphorisms; without method, or distinct arrangement of each, yet not without propriety; as the principles of religion and political wisdom have a close and inseparable connection, and a most powerful influence on each other. In the passage, which I have selected from it, the great and fundamental principle of religion is, for the same reason, and with still greater propriety, connected in the same sentence with the first and

1 Preached before the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, in the Abbeychurch, Westminster, on Friday, January 30, 1767 being the day appointed to be observed as the day of the martyrdom of King Charles I. By Robert Lowth, Lord Bishop of Oxford.

1767. 4to.

London,