best spirit and elixir of the mind. It makes the soul spring all her powers, and astonish herself with a consciousness of the treasures she contains. A Nelson and a Wellington would never have been sensible of the strength and reach of their own capacity, and we should never have admired it and reaped its advantages, but for the dreadful situations they have braved and surmounted. Our misfortunes, then, so called, may be made the most fortunate circumstances of our life. They may enrich us for ever with the opulence which Heaven supplies. Health, and wealth, and all that mortality can give, are but extrinsic to the soul. They form no part of her own proper furniture. She is herself a far nobler world; and all the matter in the universe is but an atom to her, if once she plume herself for eternity, and seek her refuge and her rest in God.

It is obvious to remark, that the late painful event may be the occasion of much immediate good to the souls of our dear countrymen; and this, particularly, by means of the character of our late incomparable princess, now brought forward fully to the view of the nation, and operating through the medium of that deep and solemn feeling by which the public mind is moved. Her name is endeared to us by our admiration of that character, by our conviction that she fills a throne in heaven, and by the sad sense of our loss at her untimely departure. Surely this endearment gives her virtues and example a paramount authority.

Our sorrows bring a soothing with them, which fixes our enamoured spirits on the bright pattern she has left us, and inclines us to emulate her imitable excellencies. The whole occasion is pervaded by uncommon solemnity, but no horrid image, no imp of hell, intrudes upon the heavenly scene, to divert our attention from that angel of our love and delight, whom our eye sorrowingly follows to the confines of blessedness. We are not afraid with any great amazement, or distracted by dread. We feel that we are tranquil, and can listen, in sweet abstraction from the din of mortality, to that voice which lately, on earth, gave the very music of virtue to all within its sound, but which now from heaven speaks, with sufficient distinction, and blest lessons of religion and virtue, to

this sublunary world. That voice here is the Briton who will rebelamand of such a voice?

I wish it were in my power to draw the character of our admirable but departed princess. For this, however, I have neither the materials nor the talents. It will, no doubt, be done by many persons competent to finish that nice and important task. Still we are not entire strangers to her worth. We have heard

her fame. We have seen her move, though at a distance, not in the circumstantial pomp of royalty, and of fashion, but in all the real majesty of unpretending, benevolent, and active virtue and piety.

Of the character of this princess, as to the solid mental endowments ascribed to her; the bent she took by education and the wisdom of her own will, preparatory to her future rank; and the high qualities she possessed for the stately and most beneficial occupation of a throne; we, now present, are not the proper judges. We may conclude, however, that a queen, thus modelled and inspired, would have driven from her court the bats and owls of dark iniquity, by the brightness of her rising, and spread a noon-day lustre of goodness and of piety through both hemispheres of her dominions.

But the essential virtues, the religious acquisitions, and great practical duties of the human being, which shone in her, defined and illuminated by the light of her exalted rank and destiny, are perfectly level to our imitation. The industry of her whole life, which might put thousands of her inferiors to the blush; her obedience to parents and instructors, though she was possessed of a high-toned natural disposition; her conjugal affection and devotedness; (for, fidelity in this instance, was its lowest character, and unthought-of in the constant rapture of an attached heart;) her anxiety to promote the happiness of all around her, of every British subject, of the whole world; above all, her deep regard for true religion, her piety, her strict observance of the holy sabbath, her attendance on religious ordinances, her uniform practice of secret prayer, her declared desire to live with constant reference to a happy death, and her exclusive dependence, for salvation, on the merits of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, ought, this day, to impress our hearts with the stamp of their own Divine character, and to leave behind them the very principles and spirit which gave them birth and inspiration. We should then experience, in the sorrowing remembrance of her distressing removal, that this national calamity is the occasion of incalculable good, to those who rightly improve

it; and be convinced, that God intended this immediate benefit to arise, as, at least, one subordinate advantage of a case in his Providence, which has an inconceivable range, and which, perhaps, can only give its grand result at some very distant period of time.

III. I had intended to dwell on some reflections, more distinctly arising from the great cause of our present griefs; (for as to Providence in general, the improvement of that subject is too vast to be entered upon at present;) but the discussion having occupied more time than was expected, we shall soon conclude this discourse. I will just mention a few things which naturally struck upon my own mind, without much assistance of speculation or study.

First, then, who can help exclaiming, "O the depth, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!" We have seen that the late event must have been designed in wisdom. But, O, what astonishing knowledge of nature and of futurity must be involved in that wisdom! What statesman, what legislator, what philosopher, what philanthropist, could ever have imagined such an expedient for our good, for our correction, or for the beneficial management of public affairs? This knowledge is too mighty for us. It belongs to God alone. Let us be thankful that all saving and essential knowledge is within our grasp. Thus God has admirably suited circumstances even to his creatures. The ponderous animal that browses the earth may find food within the limits of a field, while a bird, that has wings, must collect its supplies from a whole extent of country. The things that are revealed belong to us and to our children; secret things belong to the Lord. But what we know not now, we shall know here

after.

Again The event in question strikes us by an awful view of the uncontrollable power and majesty of God. Perhaps, it will be said, that this is much more extensively seen in the affirmations of the text, and the general display of Providence on which we have dwelt. True: But who regards the ordinary manifestations of the Deity? Our little minds are not often touched with a whole. A part must be selected for us. Some principal figure must start from the canvass to arrest our lifeless attention. Before we will turn our eyes to the beautiful spectacle of the heavens, some great eclipse must occur, though this phenomenon implies no extraordinary power of God. Thus the death of our lamented princess strikes us with conviction of what God can

easily effect. Had some foreign enemy invaded Britain, with a view to snatch her from us, a hundred thousand swords would have sprung from their scabbards, to defend the inestimable treasure which, in her, we so lately possessed; and this power would have availed, if God had yielded his assent: But, when Deity interferes, the whole universe must give way.

Once more: It is obvious to remark, that proper thoughts of the late event ought to increase our satisfactions with life, and our submission to death. No warming spirits, no friendship, no love, no enjoyments of mortal existence now thrill the cold, unconscious heart of her on whose account we sorrow. Yet she did rank among the most elevated women in the world. And God hath been pleased to withdraw from her, what he still continues to the meanest maid in the country,-life, and its blessings, both natural and religious. How ought we, then, to value this distinguishing goodness of God towards us! And shall we not patiently submit to the stroke of impartial death, who sways his sceptre over the universal race of man, and spares not the mighty and the noble ?

To conclude: This great stroke of the king of terrors leads us to a grand proof of an immortal state. Why this sudden blasting of such blooming hopes, such cultivated intellect, such brilliant virtue, if there be not something answerable to them in another world? The present scene is not proportioned to the nature of man. He is constantly effecting new creations for himself, in the range of that imagination which more particularly rules over what are called "the fine arts;" he is restless with real life; he has thoughts that wander through eternity. Why these boundless properties, liable every moment to be extinguished from this state of mortality, if there be no futurity, no world of infinity, to furnish them with objects, with scope, and immortality to correspond with their nature?

Convinced, then, that there is an Almighty God, a blessed heaven, a dreadful hell, and an eternity of both, to one of which we are rapidly advancing on the wheel of time, let us implore the favour of so great a Being, and cultivate that meetness of a pure heart, in which alone we can be raised to see his face in glory, through the merits and mediation of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ; to whom with the Father, and the Holy Ghost, be ascribed Divine and everlasting honours. Amen.

DIVINE PROVIDENCE ILLUSTRATED

IN

THE ORDINATION

OF

POLITICAL GOVERNMENT:

A DISCOURSE,

IN WHICH

THE DOCTRINE OF THE APOSTLE'S WORDS,

"THE POWERS THAT BE ARE ORDAINED of God,"

IS IMPARTIALLY ADJUSTED, AND RELIGIOUSLY IMPROVED:

DELIVERED IN

SANS-STREET CHAPEL, SUNDERLAND,

ON WEDNESDAY, FEB. 16TH, 1820.

THE DAY APPOINTED FOR THE INTERMENT OF

HIS LATE MAJESTY KING GEORGE III.

"AND he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD Of Lords.".

"EXAMPLE in a king is all in all;

The statutes of the realm serve less to form
His subjects' manners, than the life he leads."

REV. xix. 16.

CLAUD. 4, Cons. Hon

U