LVII.

What glory is it, if when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye take it patiently?-1 Peter, ii. 20.

IN a state of trial, we are always buffeted for our faults. Our merciful Father never lays any affliction upon us, which is not meant to correct some moral mischief. Under this idea, therefore, we should take patiently every evil that befalls us; and should endeavour to correct our faults by the buffetings of Providence.

If we are religious in the use of this moral discipline, the outward sign will follow. The natural effect will be an easy pleasant temper. He who is in good humour only when he is pleased, plainly shews he has not yet learned this religious lesson. But when he smiles, and suffers, most probably he feels as he ought, God's correcting hand.

LVIII.

Beware, lest any man spoil you through philosophy, and vain deceit, after the traditions of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. -Colossians, ii. 8.

WE have here a kind of prophetic caution against the spirit of philosophy, which should certainly at various times step forth, and oppose the simplicity of the gospel. Amidst all the evidences of Christianity, and even during the rapid progress which it made, the vain deceits of philosophy, those rudiments of the world, began early to appear.

We need not wonder, therefore, if they should make their appearance in these declining days. Miraculous powers have now ceased-Christianity is supported only by evidence, which few are disposed to examine-the ties of religion are more relaxed-people are less in earnest than they used to be- and worldly philosophy hath attained a greater height. Under these circumstances, we

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need not wonder, if the vanity and self-importance of the philosopher should set up a new creed in opposition to Christianity.

Let us then, my brethren, be on our guard. We are forewarned of these vain deceits. We have lately seen the dreadful havoc, which this worldly philosophy hath occasioned in all parts of Europe; and ought to tremble at every approach that is made towards it.

LIX.

We were bondmen; but our God hath not forsaken us in our bondage, but hath extended his mercy unto us. Ezra, ix. 9.

WE are met together to-day * to deplore the violent death of a very amiable prince. How far he should be introduced among the noble army of martyrs, is another question. The act, however, which we deplore, was certainly a most nefarious one; and calls for the highest indignation.

In deploring, however, the crimes and violences of those lawless times, let us not forget the mercies of God, which attended them—of that God, who brings light out of darkness, and turns the wickedness of men into acts of mercy.

If we examine with a candid eye, the whole train of these events, however melancholy in themselves, we are led to acknowledge, they produced in the end one of the greatest national blessings,

* January the Thirtieth.

which the Providence of God ever afforded to this land, in opening a way to the establishment of that happy state of liberty, which we at present enjoy.

Our lawyers speak of a spirit of liberty inherent in the constitution. It might be, but the people felt it not. They did not know their own consequence. The spirit of exerting the liberty, which the laws gave them, slumbered; and they bore patiently whatever an arbitrary prince imposed.

Before the civil wars broke out, the government of this country tended certainly to despotism. The Tudors were tyrants; and if James the first was not equally tyrannical, it was not for want of inclination, but for want of those commanding talents, which his predecessors possessed.

Charles the First, with all his amiable qualities, seems to have had no inclination to relax the regal authority: and if he had been successful in this struggle, it is probable, he might have continued in the arbitrary plan of his predecessors. He was easily impressed by those about him; many of whom would have found it their interest to rouse the prerogative. Even the no

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