prophet; Our holy and our beautiful house, where our fathers praised thee, is burnt up with fire; and all our pleasant things are laid waste." But the circumstances of this occurrence may carry forward our views to a more awful and tremendous catastrophe, when, as St. Peter predicts, "the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat; the earth also, and the works that are therein shall be burnt up." Thus, when the drama of human affairs is ended, the very stage on which it has been acted shall be given to the flames. The world in which we live, on account of man's transgression is devoted to destruction. 66 Seeing, then, that all these things," the frame-work of the natural creation, with all its appendages, which we behold around us, "shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation and godliness; looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God?" Amidst this final and universal desolation, there is one, and only one object upon which the mind can dwell with peace and confidence; but this one object is big with everlasting consolation:"

Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath; for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall

die in like manner; but my salvation shall be for ever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished. Isaiah li. 6, 7.

II. The words of the text, which were originally used in reference to the political state of the Jewish nation, may now be applied in a similar sense to THE DANGERS WHICH, AT THE PRESENT CRISIS, THREATEN TO LAY WASTE OUR TESTANT CHURCH AND CONSTITUTION.

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Every eye is familiar with the outward structure of our houses of prayer: this is the first object which in general presents itself to the view in approaching our towns or villages; each parish has its sanctuary, its "holy and beautiful house," consecrated to the sacred purposes of religion, where prayer is wont to be made, where the voice of praise is accustomed to be heard, where the word of God is preached, and the ordinances of Christianity are celebrated. The outward structure may be considered as symbolical of a nobler edifice that pure and apostolical branch of the visible church of Christ established in these realms. This, the visible church, defined in our Nineteenth Article to be "a congregation of faithful men, in which the pure word of God is preached, and the sacraments duly administered, in all those things that of necessity are requisite to the same," has been designated by St. Paul, "The house of God, which is the church of the living

God, the pillar and ground of the truth." I Tim. iii. 15. This house has been built up "upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone." 'Walk about our Zion, and go round about her, tell the towers thereof; mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces, that ye may tell it to the generations following." Psalm xlviii. 12, 13. And let it above all things be well considered, let it now be proclaimed throughout our land, let it be handed down to remotest posterity, that the strength and beauty of our Established Church consists in the purity of her Protestant principles.

It must also be observed, that the civil constitution, as well as the ecclesiastical establishment of our hitherto favoured and happy country, is also essentially Protestant. Protestantism, or Christianity in its purest form, as distinguished from the corrupt religion of apostate Rome, is the sure and solid basis on which this venerable fabric has been erected. Protestantism is the leaven which has pervaded the entire mass, and hitherto preserved it from corruption and decay. testantism is what has given to Britain her pre-eminence amongst the nations, and rendered her the light of the world, and the salt of the earth. Protestantism is the soil in which the tree of English liberty, civil as well as religious, has flourished, and is that which

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has diffused health, vigour, and gracefulness through all its ramifications. Protestantism has been our country's bulwark in the time of danger, her consolation under national calamity, and her glory at all times; nor can it reasonably be doubted but that the pure and essential Protestantism of the state is that which has ensured the security and welfare of the church. In a word, whatever the ark of the covenant was to Israel of old, such is Protestantism to Britain now: it is the symbol of the divine presence amongst us as a highly favoured people; it is the ark of our national strength, the pledge of the divine interposition in our behalf, the earnest of every temporal and spiritual blessing; and so long as it is preserved inviolable, and both prince and people maintain their plighted fidelity, and keep themselves pure from the taint of anti-christian confederacy, just so long shall we continue to stand in a covenant relation to God, and just so long may it continue to be said of Protestant Britain, "What nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them as the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon him for? Deut. iv. 7. But, should the constitution of our country at any time cease to be purely Protestant; should the sworn defenders of our liberties and our rights be induced by any considerations whatever to betray their sacred trust, to compromise

their principles, to succumb to the violence of faction, to concede to the enemies of the national faith their most unreasonable demands, and to join themselves in accursed fellowship with those whom they have sworn to regard as anti-christian and idolatrous, (See Notes No. I. and II.) should such a national apostacy from the national religion receive the full force of legislative sanction, (which dreadful calamity may God of his infinite mercy avert!) from that very hour the basis of our civil and religious liberties will be removed, and our glorious constitution in church and state be broken up. Wherever the little leaven of Popery is permitted to work, it can never, in the nature of things, suspend its operations while any part of the entire mass remains unleavened. When there can be union between light and darkness, and concord between Christ and Belial, then, and not till then, may Protestantism and Popery embrace as bosom friends. But if there can be no union between the two, it follows that a constitution built upon a compound of Popish and Protestant principles, and especially with a Protestant Church Establishment engrafted upon it, will ever be a house divided against itself." In such a form, it is impossible that it could long stand. And who in this case does not foresee that the same impulse which now urges on the Romanists to the acquirement of political power,