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cence would fupport me as it does him, under whatever prejudiced and violent men might do to me, as well as say of me. But I fee no occafion to expose myself to danger without any prospect of doing good, or to continue any longer in a country in which I am fo unjustly become the object of general dislike, and not retire to another, where I have reafon to think I fhall be better received. And I trust that the fame good Providence which has attended me hitherto, and made me happy in my present situation, and all my former ones, will attend and bless me in what may still be before me. In all events, The will of God be done.

I cannot refrain from repeating again, that I leave my native country with real regret, never expecting to find any where elfe fociety fo fuited to my difpofition and habits, fuch friends as I have here (whofe attachment has been more than a balance to all the abuse I have met with from others) and especially to replace one particular Christian friend, in whofe abfence I fhall, for fome time at leaft, find all the world a blank. Still lefs can I expect to refume my favourite purfuits, with any thing like the advantages I enjoy here. In leaving this country I also abandon a fource of maintenance, which I can but ill bear to lofe. I can, however, truly fay, that I

mory execrated, than fending fuch men as Mr. Marolles, and other eminent Proteftants, who are now revered as faints and martyrs, to the gallies, along with the vileft mifcreants. Compared with this, the punishment of death would be mercy. I trust that, in time, the Scots in general will think these measures a disgrace to their country.

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leave it without any refentment, or ill will. On the contrary, I fincerely with my countrymen all happinefs; and when the time for reflection (which my abfence may accelerate) fhall come, my countrymen, I am confident, will do me more juftice. They will be convinced that every fufpicion they have been led to entertain to my difadvantage has been ill founded, and that I have even fome claims to their gratitude and efteem. In this cafe, I shall look with fatisfaction to the time when, if my life be prolonged, I may visit my friends in this country; and perhaps I may, notwithstanding my removal for the prefent, find a grave (as I believe is naturally the wish of every man) in the land that gave me birth.

FAST

FAST SERMON,

FEBRUARY 28, 1794.

REPENT YE, FOR THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN IS AT

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HIS was the great burden of the preaching of both John the Baptift and of our Saviour. But as that kingdom of heaven, the approach of which they announced, and which, by our Saviour's direction, is the fubject of our daily prayers, is not yet come, but much nearer than it was in their time, there must be a greater propriety in urging this exhortation at present, than there has ever yet been. It is nothing but repentance that can prepare finful men (and all men are more or less finners) to derive any advantage from this kingdom, in which Christ and the faints fhall bear rule; that new ftate of the heavens and of the earth, in which righteousness only will dwell. And being a fecond time called upon by our rulers to humble ourselves before God, on account of the calamities we already feel, and those that we have reafon to fear, and repentance being B

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the only means of averting his anger, and procuring a ceffation, or mitigation, of his heavy judgments, I fhall take this opportunity of urging it, from that very critical and truly alarming fituation, in which almoft the whole of Europe now finds itself, and this country of ours, as having most at stake, perhaps more than any other.

If we can learn any thing concerning what is before us, from the language of prophecy, great calamities, fuch as the world has never yet experienced, will precede that happy ftate of things, in which the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdom of our Lord Jefus Chrift;' and thefe calamities will chiefly affect those nations which have been the feat of the great antichriftian power; or, as all Protestants, and I believe justly, suppose, have been fubject to the fee of Rome. And it appears to me highly probable, as I hinted in my last difcourfe on this occafion, that the prefent disturbances in Europe are the beginning of thofe very calamitous times. I therefore think there is a call for unusual seriousness, and attention to the courfe of Divine Providence, that when the judgments of God are abroad in the earth, the inhabitants thereof may learn righteousness,' fo as to be prepared for whatever events the now rapid wheels of time may difclose. Let us then, my brethren, make a serious pause. Let us look back to the antient prophecies, and compare them with the present state of things around us, and let us then look to ourselves, to our

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own fentiments and conduct, that we may feel and act as our peculiar circumftances require.

The future happy state of the world, when the Jews fhall be restored to their own country, and be at the head of all the nations of the earth, was first diftinctly mentioned by Isaiah, and other prophets who were nearly cotemporary with him; but it was first denominated the kingdom of heaven, and announced as to be administered by the Son of Man, or the Meffiah, by Daniel. It was, however, by other prophets, given to a descendant of David. All Chriftians confider Jefus as this defcendant of David, or the promised Meffiah. The mistake which the Jews were under, arofe from their wholly overlooking the fuffering state of the Messiah, and imagining that his first coming would be that mentioned by Daniel, in the clouds of heaven; and confequently that his kingdom would commence on his firft appear

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Jefus, knowing himself to be the Meffiah, never denied that, at a proper time, he would appear as a king; nor could there have been at that time any uncertainty about the meaning of the term king. When Pilate asked Jefus if he was a king, he acknowledged it, and added that he was fent to bear witness to that, as well as to other truths; though, to obviate the jealoufy of Pilate, and the Roman government, he faid that his kingdom was not of this world; fo that it did not interfere with the governments which then existed in the world, being that kingdom

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