events, to have been expected. It was impoffible, alfo, in the nature of things, that the violent agitations of France fhould not, in fome way or other, affect every neighbouring flate, and ultimately extend their convulfive influence to the remotest parts of Europe.

The Jacobin faction, the most defperate and profligate mentioned in hiftory, fpeedily fpread, through their own country, confufion, anarchy, and every fpecies of unbridled licentioufnefs, trampled under foot every feeling and fentiment of humanity, confounded every moral diftin&tion, and invefted, with the badges of honour, the most deteftable forms of criminality. Thefe men had feen, in the writings of pretended philofophers, the groffet corruptions of Chriflianity expofed as the genuine doctrines of our holy faith. They had feen the virulent perfecutions, which thefe corruptions, in fubfervience to the most iniquitous paffions of the human breaft, had occafioned, imputed to a religion which breathes univerfal charity and kindness, and prepares man for heaven by rendering him beneficent and virtuous on earth. They had feen its pureft precepts, which foar far above morality merely human, represented as impracticable, or pernicious. They had learned to confider every real Chrif tian as a fanatic, and to clafs every fpecies of religion with fuperftition and hypocrify. Rejecting Chriftianity, therefore, as a fable, they refolved to extirpate it wherever their power might extend, and, with a spirit of freedom difdaining fubmiffion even to infinite wifdom, goodnefs, and power, to dethrone, in idea, the Sovereign of the univerfe. Pretending to wage war with fanaticifm, they exhibited it in a form and fhape unknown and unconceived before-the fanaticifm of atheifm, the burning zeal of impiety, the fublimated fpirit of political intolerance.

Now, for the first time, was difplayed, to the world, the fpectacle of a legislative body renouncing all regard for religion, and openly proclaiming, as the perfection of wisdom, the disbelief of a Deity and of a future flate. The frongeft ties, by which mankind are bound, and the most powerful motives, by which they are influenced to the practice of virtue, were, under the fanction of avowed principle, broken and deftroyed, and what reafon itfelf had established, on the ftrongeft foundations, was confidered as the reverie of difordered fancy.

So nearly, however, are extremes allied, that, in the midft of this flagrant renunciation of all religious principle, the open profeffion and practice of idolatry and polytheifm were adopted. Thofe, who difclaimed the religion of Chrift, and the worship of God, erected altars to the imaginary goddefs of liberty, and to the deified perfonification of their country, and attempted to revive the abfurd religious ceremonies of Greece and Rome. So that, among all the other extravagancies of the prefent age, was exhibited the inconfitent union of atheism, and fuperftition, while each of thefe difcordant principles counteracted the effect of the other; atheifm preventing fuperftition from affording any check to the crimes of its professors, and superstition infpiring that fanatical rage which atheism pretends to prevent-An appearance of delufion and frenzy hitherto unexampled in the annals of the world.

As this frantic fpirit endeavoured to propagate its tenets through every furrounding nation, and to overturn every establifhed form of government, it was not furprising that princes and states should combine to refift it: and, if ever there was a time, when mutual intereft dictated mutual and cordial co-operation, and the abandonment of all narrow, partial, and selfish views, it was furely that in which the coalition was formed against the torrent of the French anarchical fyftem. But, the reverse of all this took place. The Continental powers were united by no principle of common welfare. They were actuated by no regard for the happiness either of their own fubjects, or of mankind in general. That old fyftem of crooked and narrow politics, by which the cabinets of Europe have been too much influenced for two hundred years backwards, dictated their measures, and directed the whole of their proceedings. Each fought only fome little acquifition of territory, of treafure, or of power. Their fubfequent conduct justified the imputations of their enemies; and, while they profeffed to flop the torrent of impiety, anarchy, and cruelty, they contributed to its more extenfive and rapid courfe. What has been the refult? Their feeble and illconcerted oppofition has afforded, to a power the most enterprizing and dangerous that has appeared in the world fince the times of ancient Rome, all that advantage which attends the splendor and the dread of victory; and, while their weakness has re

moved every refraint of fear, they have loft that respect which would, at leaft, have been attached to principle. The fiends of war have been let loose to ravage and defolate Europe; poverty, diftrefs, bloodshed, and almost every fpecies of mifery have been widely extended, with no other effect, but that of augmenting that very evil, the prevention or diminution of which was to have been the fole compenfation of fuch immediate calamities. Wherever we turn our view, nothing is prefented but the most melancholy fubjects of contemplation.

We behold the strongest bonds of fociety burft afunder over a confiderable part of Chriftendom, the tendereft charities of nature trodden under foot, impiety, blafphemy, and atheism stalking on the carth with daring front, and bidding defiance to the thunder of the Almighty. We behold a nation, efteemed one of the most civilized of Europe, flained with deeds of barbarity by which the moft ferocious favages would have deemed themfelves difgraced. We behold the wild and impious leaders of that nation, not content with having deluged its fields and its ftreets with the blood of thoufands of victims facrificed to fear, to revenge, or to wanton cruelty; with having depopulated and laid wafte its cities, diffolved all focial order, and extinguifhed, in the breafts of their countrymen, all true fenfe of juftice, humanity, and religion, fuccefsfully employed in fpreading the fame confufion and mifery through every other nation to which they can extend their power. We behold fome of the principal Sovereigns of Europe now trembling before the gigantic French Republic, eagerly courting reconciliation with her, joining in the bands of amity with thofe whom they had proclaimed the moft atrocious malefactors, and, in order to compenfate the loffes, they have fuftained in the conteft, in which they have been engaged, adopting thofe very fchemes of invafion of their weaker neighbours, which in her they had fo strongly reprobated. We behold two powerful ftates deprived of political existence, and divided by the hand of rapine*, and others ftripped of half their poffeffions. We fee our own country almoft exhausted by a bloody, expenfive, and exafperated war; and although, by the divine undeferved mercy, we have, hitherto, been preferved

* Poland and Venice.

from

from that confuñion, diforder, and ruin which have overwhelmed other nations, we are uncertain how long this advantage may be continued.

Never before did modern Europe experience a more dreadful concuffiona concuffion aiready productive of the greateft changes, and announcing ftill greater, and more numerous. For, the fermentation, which every-where agitates the minds of men, cannot foon fubfide. Paffions, fo ftrongly, and fo generally excited, muft, like water which has burft every bank and mound that contained it, spread their inundations far and wide, till they, at laft, find their own level. Notwithstanding the general defire, and, acknowledged neceflity of peace to all Europe, there is little probability of its complete reftoration, and ftill lefs, of its continuance, for a series of fucceeding years. From this country the infolence and injuftice of its enemies have removed all hopes of pacification for the prefent. The fpirit of conquest, and of univerfal dominion appears evidently to have feized the prefent rulers of France. Peace is contrary both to their immediate poffeffion of power, and to their exorbitant fchemes of aggrandizement, nor till thefe are completely and irretrievably frustrated, are there any hopes of a general and permanent pacification.

The laf general ferment which Christendom experienced was that which was occafioned by the reformation. Wars and rumours of wars did not fubfide for nearly a century after they commenced. It is true that all these commotions and calamities were ultimately productive of the greateft good both to the civil, and religious interefts of mankind. But, while human corruption is fo deeply rooted, and fo widely fpread, it is hardly poffible that correction, amendment, and final peace can be obtained without great and lafting feverities. The ferment, which now exifts, is, indeed, of a complexion very different from that just ftated. It is merely political, and frongly irreligious. But, it is a great and extensive ferment, and muft produce effects adequate to its force and diffusion.

Now, if thefe are not the judgments of God in the earth, when did they ever exiû? When has his arm ever been more confpicuously difplayed, from the clouds, wielding the threatening fword, to imprefs, on the inhabitants of the world, the long forgotten leffons of rightcoufnefs? Thefe judgments are not to

be

be confounded with the more doubtful ones of hurricanes, earthquakes, tempefts, or inundations, which, though adapted to roufe men to reflection, and to a ferious review of their moral state, fpring not immediately from human depravity, and bear not along with them the diftin&t impreiñons of moral evil. The judgments, which now afflict mankind, can all be traced back to the most polluted fources of corruption, and, originating in the profligacy of the higher ftations of fociety, have diffufed their contagion through the whole focial maís. From the fole of the foot even to the head, there is no foundnefs in it; but wounds and bruifes and putrifying fores. It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not confumed, becaufe his compaffions fail not†.

The love of money, the root of all evil, is univerfally predominant. The commercial fpirit, laudable, indeed, and falutary, when restrained within due bounds, and regulated by the principles of piety and morality, now appears to abforb every other confideration, to prefcribe the most extenfive gain as the meafure of public intereft, to extinguith the genuine love of country, and to eradicate all fenfe of national honour. The mafculine, elevated, and wife fentiments of our ancestors feem to have given place to a fordid defire, and an ignoble veneration, of wealth, to an intemperate love of pleafure, to wafting luxury, and to all the frivolity and effeminacy of a luxurious and opulent age. Diffipation and profanity are no longer confined to the higher ranks, where they long refided, but have defcended to the lower, aggravated by all that coarfenefs of excefs which always accompanies a mean education. Among them, the doctrines of infidelity have also been diffeminated with a facility of reception which would, a few years ago, have been accounted impoffible. Never before were thofe conjugal ties, the fanctity of which is the furet pledge of purity of morals and of public happiness, fo wantonly broken; never was domeftic felicity fo frequently ftabbed, and all that people owe to their children and families, so fhamefully neglected or forgotten; never was there a period in which religion was fo little fludied, in theory, and fo little manifefted in practice; in fo much, that it appears to be the only fubject which ought not to occupy people's thoughts, and the only principle that ought not to influence their conduct. Even when any re