will, when this object is obtained, with accumulated force, nay, with irresistible impetuosity, still urge them on to the attainment of Catholic ascendency?

Admit the influence of this deadly mischief, and the immediate result will be, that the very life-blood of the state will be contaminated as with an infectious and mortal disease. Henceforward it may be said of it, as was said of the Jewish polity, the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no such thing as soundness through the entire system. The constitution of the state would become like Nebuchadnezzar's image, whose feet were part of iron and part of clay. (Dan ii. 33.) To admit the Catholics to political power, is to turn a wolf into the sheepfold-to admit an enemy within the walls. To admit the Catholics to power, is to give those who are bent upon our ruin the means of effecting their object. To abandon our Protestant ascendency, is to cut down the very tree under whose shade we have so long reposed, and of whose fruits we have so long partaken: it is to admit a worm to prey upon the root of this tree until its leaf shall wither and its blossom go up as dust. In a word, let this ark of our national glory be surrendered to the enemy, and ICHABOD (1 Sam. iv. 21, 22) may then be written on all

that is left; for the glory of the Lord will have departed from our Israel.

That Popery is the same now it ever wasthat its nature is unchanged and unchangeable, Romanists themselves admit; and what that nature is, let the page of history exhibit; let the transactions of Queen Mary's reign declare; let the valleys of Piedmont testify; let the tortures of the Inquisition teach; let the blood of our martyred forefathers, that blood which still calls aloud for vengeance-let that proclaim: or could the past be blotted out, let the spirit which Popery at present manifests, the doctrines she maintains, the maxims she adopts, and (where opportunity is given) the deeds which she perpetrateslet these things convince us that her true name is " MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE

MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND THE ABOMINATIONS

OF THE EARTH. (Rev. xvii. 5.) From a principle of self-preservation, therefore, as well as from the most solemn sense of duty to God and to our country, we are bound to resist, by every constitutional measure, consistent with the spirit and precepts of our holy religion, the encroachments of this enemy of God and man. My brethren, our liberties and rights are invaded, and there is no principle in nature or in religion which forbids us thus to stand on the defensive.

Who then will deny that popish ascendency is

the worst evil which could befall our native land? And who does not perceive that no less an evil at present menaces the country? Our glorious constitution in Church and State, as settled in 1688, remains indeed to the present hour whole and inviolable; but how much longer it is thus to remain we are waiting in awful suspense to learn. The storm has gathered thick around, and the enemy is approaching our borders. Too soon, alas! may the lamentation of the prophet be ours; too soon may our holy and beautiful house be despoiled of its beauty and sanctity, and all our pleasant things be laid waste. If we as a nation reject God, as a nation we must expect to be rejected of God. If we despise the privileges which were purchased for us at so dear a price, it is most just that we should be deprived of those privileges. But oh! could our Reformers once more revisit this wretched earth, the scene of their former labours, of their sorrows, and their triumphs, how would they weep over Britain as our Saviour wept over Jerusalem: If thou hadst known (oh that thou mightest yet know,)-even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace, before they are hidden from thine eyes. (Luke xix. 41, 42.)

But blessed be God, our hope has not yet wholly perished. The things which belong unto our peace are neither hidden from our eyes, nor

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forced from our grasp.

The storm which lowers

with a portentous blackness, and every moment threatens to burst upon us, may yet be dispersed; the deadly shaft may even yet in mercy be turned aside, and British Protestants continue to sit under their vines and under their fig-trees, none daring to make them afraid. If like Nineveh we repent, like Nineveh we shall be spared. The great and crying sin of our church and nation has been a growing coldness and indifference to the peculiar doctrines of the glorious Reformation, and in too many instances a virtual dereliction of Protestant principles. In this consists our national and ecclesiastical guilt. Of this may we as a nation be convinced, and this may we deeply deplore before our God. "Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?" In the case of penitent Nineveh it is recorded, and recorded no doubt for our encouragement, that "God saw their works, that they turned from their evil ways, and God repented of the evil that he had said that he would do unto them, and he did it not." (Jonah iii. 9, 10.) But I am anticipating what belongs more properly to the application of the subject. It remains for me to ob

serve,

III. That the words of the text are well adapted to remind us of THE DESOLATING EF

FECTS OF SIN IN THE SOUL OF MAN-that soul which by original creation was holy and beautiful," and designed to be the dwelling-place of the Lord of Hosts. This view of the subject is of the utmost importance in its practical bearing, and will lead to a discovery whence the mischief emanates, and where our strength lies for its effectual resistance and final cure.

It must not after all be forgotten, that the best constituted Church Establishment, how highly and justly soever it may be valued, is but the external frame-work of the spiritual temple. A visible church is, in the symbolical language of Scripture, called a candlestick, (Rev. i. 20.) And as the utility and essential value of a lamp depends on the deposit of oil which it contains, so the beauty and excellence of the great body of the church must ever be dependent on the personal holiness, soundness in the faith, and Christian consistency of its individual members. It follows therefore that personal piety is the very life and soul of the Christian church; piety produced in the heart by the Holy Ghost, and upheld and cherished, from day to day, by his renewing influence. But the heart of man is neither naturally nor commonly the abode of true religion. God created man in his own image; and whilst man retained that image, his understanding was illuminated by knowledge, his judgment guided