PREFACE.

THE fentiments which I have ventured to express in the following Difcourse, first from the pulpit, and now from the press, are, I have reafon to believe, thofe of the whole British nation. Whatever difference of opinion may have prevailed refpecting the neceffity, nature, and progress of the French Revolution, there feems to be but one opinion respecting the horrid scene acted at Paris on the twenty-firft of January last-the public decapitation of Louis XVI. namely, that it was an act of complicated inhumanity and injustice.

But what has the pulpit to do with politics? It has to do with every thing that relates to the moral government of the great Supreme. Its very province is to point out and to impress remarkable difpenfations of Providence; to compare events as they arise

into light, with what is written in the word of God; to direct men's eyes through the revolutions which are continually affecting the ftate of this world, to the perpetual progress and everlasting establishment of the Redeemer's kingdom. The effort made to this purpose was not unacceptable to the people of my own charge, for they have folicited its publication; and to gratify them, more than to please myself, I have complied.

But, on the present occafion, I feel myself bound to acknowledge, that I wish the character of Author to be loft in that of Editor. It will be fufficient honour to this trifle of my own, to announce the re-appearance of my respectable Predeceffor: and to prepare the way for his learned, ingenious, and instructive discourse on the Rife and Fall of the Papacy. The importance of the fubject, the ability difplayed in Mr. Fleming's mode of treating it, the juftification of several of his conjectures by recent events and present appearances, the scarcity of the tract likewife exciting public curiofity, determined me to undertake this re-publication. I was farther

impelled

impelled from the confideration of the relation in which I ftand to the Author, as lineally his Succeffor in the paftoral care of the Scots Church, then at Founders' Hall, Lothbury, now London Wall. It was at firft my intention to have reprinted only those remarkable and ftriking paffages which refer to the times in which we live. But on maturer reflection, and by the advice of friends. whofe judgment I highly respect, I have been induced to prefent the entire difcourfe, with the dedication and prefaratory address, in its original form and this I do the more readily, that, whatever folidity and truth may be in Mr. Fleming's Apocalyptical Conjectures (for his modefty permits him not to use a ftronger expreffion), his practical obfervations must always and univerfally be seasonable and useful.

:

If the view here given of ancient prophecy, and the confirmation of the truth of God by history, experience, and the whole tide of events, shall be an inducement to any to Search, to ponder, to compare, and to delight in the Scriptures; and ferve to awaken

attention

attention to the ways of God's holy Providence, an important point will be gained, and a great public benefit conferred. May the bleffing of Heaven crown every attempt which has fuch an object in view.

A SERMON.

A SERMO N.

4

DAN. ii. 19-23.

Then was the fecret revealed unto Daniel in a night vifion. Then Daniel bleed the God of heaven. Daniel anfwered and faid, Bleffed be the name of God for ever and ever: for wifdom and might are his : And he changeth the times and the feafons he removeth kings, and fetteth up kings: be giveth wisdom unto the wife, and knowledge to them that know understanding: He revealeth the deep and fecret things: he knoweth what is in the darkness, and the light dwelleth with him. I thank thee, and praife thee, O thou God of my fathers, who haft given me wisdom and might, and bast made known unto me now what we desired of thee.

THOUGH the Supreme Ruler of the Universe conducts and controls all his creatures, and all their actions, yet in ordinary events his agency is lefs obferved, and therefore lefs acknowledged. A carelefs, flumbering world is therefore, from time to time, roused to attention, by difpenfations of Providence which are out of the ufual courfe of things; and violent ftimulants are called in to disturb the lethargy of inconfideration and worldly-mindedness. If ever there was a period in the history of mankind when the hand of Heaven

B

was