he could not; for the advancement of the sins and the miseries, which attended this unexampled corruption. Had not GOD taken the wise in their own craftiness, and caused the wicked to fall into the pit which they digged, and into the snares which their hands had set; it is impossible to conjecture the extent to which they would have carried their devastation of human happiness. But, like the profligate rulers of Israel, those who succeeded, regularly destroyed their predecessors. The whole history of their rise, administration, and fall, is sufficiently exhibited in the following verses. "In the twenty and sixth year of Asa, "king of Judah, began Elah, the son of Baasha, to reign over Israel in Tirzah, two years. And his "servant Zimri, (captain of half his chariots,) con 66 66 spired against him, as he was in Tirzah, drinking "himself drunk in the house of Arza, steward of his "house in Tirzah. And Zimri went in, and smote “him, and killed him, in the twenty and seventh year of Asa, king of Judah, and reigned in his "stead. In the twenty and seventh year of Asa, 66 66 king of Judah, did Zimri reign seven days in "Tirzah; and the people were encamped against "Gibbethon, which belonged to the Philistines.— "And the people that were encamped, heard say, "Zimri hath conspired, and hath also slain the king.' "Wherefore all Israel made Omri, the captain of "the host, king over Israel, that day, in the camp. "And Omri went up from Gibbethon, and all Is“rael with him, and they besieged Tirzah. And it "came to pass, when Zimri saw that the city was “taken, that he went into the palace of the king's house, and burnt the king's house over him with "fire, and died, for his sins, which he sinned in * doing evil in the sight of the Lord, in walking "the way of Jeroboam, and in his sin which he did "to make Israel to sin." The spirit of infidelity has the heart of a wolf, the fangs of a tyger, and the talons of a vulture, Blood is its proper nourishment: and it scents its prey with the nerves of a hound, and cowers over a field of death on the sooty pinions of a fiend. Unlike all other animals of prey, it feeds upon its own kind; and, when glutted with the blood of others, turns back upon those, who have been its coadjutors, and who, if either its disposition, or its measures, could admit of friendship, would have been its friends.— Between 90 and 100 of those, who were leaders in this mighty work of destruction, fell by the hand of violence. Enemies to all men, they were of course enemies to each other. Butchers of the human race, they soon whetted the knife for each other's throats: and the tremendous Being, who rules the Universe, whose existence they had denied in a solemn act of legislation, whose perfections they had made the butt of public scorn and private insult, whose Son they had crucified afresh, and whose Word they had burnt by the hands of the common hangman; swept them all by the hand of violence into an untimely grave. The tale made every ear, which heard it, tingle, and every heart chill with horror. It was, in the language of Ossian, “the song of death." It was like the reign of the plague in a populous city. Knell tolled upon knell; hearse followed hearse; and coffin rumbled after coffin; without a mourner to shed a tear upon the corpse, or a solitary attendant to mark the place of the grave. From one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, the world went forth and looked after the carcasses of the men, who transgressed against GOD; and thou more □ abhorring unto all flesh. PART II. A DISCOURSE, ISAIAH XXI. 11, 12. The burden of Dumah. He calleth to me out of Seir, Watch- In the former part of this discourse I observed, that the present period is exhibited in prophecy by the two last of the seven vials, mentioned in the apocalypse. This prophecy, together with that contained in the account of the fifth vial, I recited; and in a brief comment endeavoured to explain. I then proceeded to examine a part of the history of Christendom, which I considered as the proper fulfilment of the prediction. I will now proceed with the detail; and mention several other facts, included in the same history, and constituting other parts of the fulfilment of the same prophe cies. The miseries, brought upon the French nation by the Infidels, who were the agents in its republican government, soon became intolerable. The whole system was formed of a fiend-like oppression; and the empire was filled with alarm, and blood, and wo. The period of their domination became more and more dreadful; and a considerable part of it was denomi per nated "the reign of terror;" the first time, it is believed, in which this phraseology came into proverbial use. France became a kind of suburb to the world of dition. Surrounding nations were lost in amazement, when they beheld the scene. It seemed a prelude to the funeral of this great world; a stall of death; a den, into which the feet of thousands daily entered; but none were seen to return. In this situation despair compelled those, who still had influence, energy, and contrivance, to fly from the ravages of the existing government to that last political refuge from human misery, a military despotism; heretofore regarded by mankind as the consummation of ruin. Still it was a real refuge from the horrors of the former system; horrors which no nation ever before suffered, and which no imagination had ever anticipated. The scheme of oppression was now settled; and the miseries to be suffered came on, like the course of the seasons, in a regular, expected order. Taxes reaching every fruit of human labour, and all the property, which taxes can reach, wrung blood from every vein of the miserable inhabitants. A train of spies, immense in their numbers, and stationed every where, prowled in every road and street, in every city and solitude, and haunted the church, the fire-side, and the closet; carrying fear, suspense, distrust, and anguish, to every heart. The young men were yoked together like cattle; and driven to the camp, to waste away with disease, toil, and suffering; or to fall, with less agony, upon the edge of the sword. The female sex sunk gradually from the high level, to which the Gospel had raised them, towards the miserable degradation, to which they have been depressed by Mohammedans and savages; and lost all their influence, and probably, all their disposition, to check the vices, refine the manners, and amend the hearts, of men. The irreligion of the preceding period was varied, only in its forms, and appearances; in substance it was the same. The Goddess of Reason was not now worshipped, as before, in the form of a polluted woman. The sacramental vessels were not now mounted upon an ass, and paraded through the streets, to insuit him, who died, that man might live. The Bible was not made the fuel of a bon-fire. The Sabbath might now be observed without treason against the government. But the churches were empty. The ministers were butts, and beggars. The Sabbath was a day of sport. Several bookseliers, employed by the Commissioners of the London Missionary Society to furnish them with a Bible, searched the city of Paris three days, before they could find one. Religion was dead; and her remains lay in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called, Sodom and Egypt. The kingdom became a charnel-house of Atheism: where the final knell had been tolled at the departure of life, and hope, and salvation. From the commencement of this revolution, the miseries, which spread in so terrible a manner through the French kingdom, extended themselves over all the surrounding country. The property of the prince, the nobles and the clergy, the Revolutionary leaders seized without remorse, or conscience, as their lawful prey. More than £200,000,000 sterling are supposed to have fallen into their hands by one vast act of confiscation. This immense sum was, however, insufficient to satisfy their rapacity. Under the names of contributions, war-taxes, and other claims, professedly claims of the nation, they gathered the riches of |