set us free from the encroachments of supremacy? Of ourselves they knew, we had, solemnly, renounced them-From superstition? We had reformed itFrom idolatry? We abhorred it. Was it then, as they pretended, to give Liberty to conscience from the arbitrary impositions of blind faith and implicit obedience, which our Church, of all others, was the farthest from enjoining, and not rather a dispensation from obedience to those Laws which both Scripture and antiquity had obliged her to declare for?

So gave they unto God also the things that were God's; and to make Him some compensation for invading what were His, they assigned Him many others in which He had no part, and which, by the image and superscription, appeared to be their own.

Very forward they were on all occasions to compliment Him with the command of their armies, and with the honor of their victories; very thankful to his Spirit for the gifts of incoherence, and the graces of hypocrisy; ascribing to His assistance the tediousness of their prayers, in which He had no pleasure, and the blasphemies of their devotion, which He utterly abhorred. Even the glory of this day they were contented to divide with Him; and to entitle Him to a share of it, they feared not to pronounce Him an accomplice in their parricide.

God heard all the while the babblings of their teachers, and "the blasphemies of the multitude," and saw that it was time more openly to declare Himself, and disown the cause with which they had belied Him and therefore, to let them see, that He had not, as they suggested, forsaken his Anointed, He caused

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caused His Grace to shine out in the sufferings of His servant, and His Glory to appear in the confusion of His enemies.

"Who then shall lay any thing to the charge of "God's Anointed? It is God that justifieth; who is " he that condemneth ?"

"And now, after all that is come upon us for our "evil-deeds," and for our great transgressions, "seeing that our God has punished us less than we deserve, should we again break His command.

ments, and join in affinity with the people of these "abominations, would He not," in reason, do we think, "be angry with us, until He had, utterly, "consumed us, so that there should not be as before,

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any remnant or escaping?" These things, we must believe," happened to us for ensamples;" and were designed by Providence to admonish and instruct us; "to the intent that we should not lust after" change of government, 66 as they also lusted"neither murmur" against our Sovereign, "as some

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of them also murmured, and were destroyed of "the destroyer." And sure, when we reflect on the follies and the punishment of those that were before us, and the tendency of those principles which misled and ruined them; "if yet we have not suffered so many things in vain," our Religion will engage us to renounce them in ourselves, and our safety will require us to take heed of them in others. It is but reasonable to believe that many of our ancestors, had they soon enough foreseen to what excesses it would carry them, would more carefully have abstained from those principles of government they, afterwards, so foolishly adopted. Many of

them, we know, withdrew upon their doing so, and repented, we may hope, of the evils they had concurred in: mistake and prejudice may account for the lengths to which others were transported, and even rage and despair plead something for the obstinate: but for any in our days coolly, and at this distance, to justify the grounds, and applaud the consequences, of so monstrous a rebellion, this sure is to outgo the madness of their fathers, and roundly to "fill up the measure of "their iniquities."

What fruit, if we may ask them, had their fathers in those things, whereof we could wish, they were even now ashamed? What form or comeliness was there in any of those models they capriciously introduced, "that we should again desire them?" To what purpose served all their experiments on the Constitution, but to convince us of their vanity, and to shew us, that the scheme of a Government without a King, and of a Church without a Bishop, was equally impracticable?

And now, that they have tried all others to the utmost, what remains but that they join with us in "holding fast that which is good," that which the laws of God have declared to be most excellent, and the genius of the geople has demonstrated to be necessary?

Let us, as it becomes us, by a watchful zeal and concern for our Establishment, work together with our God, and by caring for it ourselves engage Him to protect it: From the things which we enjoy, let us learn to be thankful, and "obedient," at least, "by "those which we have suffered." Let us stand fast in the liberty with which "God hath made us free, and ❝ not entangle ourselves" again with the yoke of that bondage from which we are delivered. As free,

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but not using our liberty for a cloak of malicious"ness," or as an argument for rebelling. Instead of disputing how far we may resist, with religious loyalty, "let us render," as we are bound, "unto every one, "their due; fear to whom fear, tribute to whom tri"bute is due, honor to whom honor:" double honor to those whom "the King himself delights to honor," and whose cares for the public bear witness that they deserve it. And as a pledge of our allegiance to the most excellent of Governments, and of inviolable affection to the best of Churches, let us heartily abhor, let us heartily express our abhorrence of, those principles, which wantonly turn Religion intò rebellion, and Faith into faction.

On this day, more especially, by the disloyalty of our ancestors-so fatal unto both of them-let us, carefully, put away all leaven from our houses-observing it, as often as it returns, with a due regard to the virtues of the Martyr, and the malice of his murderers; with sorrow for their sins, who unjustly were his enemies, and with shame for their unfaithfulness, who, under the shew of friendship, either lazily defended, or perfidiously betrayed, him,

"And now, O God, the great, the mighty, and the "terrible God, let not all that trouble, we beseech thee, "seem little in thy sight, which did as on this day "come upon us, on our King, and on our Princes,

on our Priests, and on our Prophets, on our Fathers, and on all this People." But if the cry of that innocent blood, which nothing but the merits of thy Son's can expiate, demands new vengeance before it can be satisfied, let us fall into thy hands-for "thou, "in thy Judgments, thinkest upon Mercy;" But

never, O never! may our own fellow-subjects be permitted any more to be the instruments of our slaverynor Jerusalem itself the seat of our captivity!

For thy Name's sake, O Lord, by which we have been called, for thy Temple's, where we worship thee, O give not up thine heritage again to such reproach; but preserve thy Church from the madness of their zeal, who would ruin by reforming it, and thy Name from those hypocrites, who fear not to advance thy Kingdom by rebelling, and thy Glory by blaspheming thee! And from all the sad and terrible effects of religious rage, pretended moderation, and independent loyalty, such as afflicted our fathers, or may threaten our posterity-good Lord deliver us! And let all the people of this Church and Nation-let all the true lovers of our King and Country, say, Amen, Amen.

SERMON