THE FALL OF EMINENT MEN IN CRITICAL PERIODS A
NATIONAL CALAMITY.

SERMON

PREACHES AT THE

GRAVEL-PIT MEETING, HACKNEY,

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 1806,

ON OCCASION OF THB RECENT DEATH OF THE

Et. Hon. CHARLES JAMES FOX.

BY ROBERT ASPLAND.

¦' One of the greatest and best men of the age in which lie lived. That illustrious per
sonage is now no more. He lives, however, in the heart of every good man; and my
ftumble panegyric can add nothing to his immortal fame."
Mr. Fox on General Washington, House of Commons, 1600.

LONDON:
/ O '"~ " Printed by C. Stower, Paternoster How,
JF9R LONGMAN, HUKST, REES AND ORME, PATERNOSTER ROW
1806.
\ 8

"WELL might he be excused for mingling histearswiththose of allranfcs and descrfp-
ions of men, for the inestimable loss of this most excellent and most virtuous character.
It was impossible for his friends, or his country, the interests of virtue, and the rights of
mankind, to sustain, by any contingency whatever, a loss more general and irreparable.
It is the hand of Heaven ! and awful as the stroke is to us, to all, we are bound to submit
with decency and resignation."
Mr, Burke's Speech in the House of Commons, on the Death of the Marquis of
Rockingham, July 9, 1782.

"THE loss of that Hon. Gentleman from his Majesty's councils, he must thereforc
view as one of the most fatal and alarming circumstances which had happened to this-
country for many years. It was by powers such as distinguished his exertions; by a'
penetration such as he always exercised ; and by a comprehension of mind which he, of
all other men, possessed in the greatest extent ; that this empire could yet be saved, if it
was to be saved at all. To see such a man lost to the administration, must be a melancholy
thing for a country at anytime ; but for this country, at such a time as the present, if
was a most serious and affecting calamity."
Duke of Richmond's Speech in the House of Lords, on Mr, Fox's Retirement'
from OJicej-JiUy 10, 1784.

PREFACE.

X he following Sermon was written in the or
dinary course of the Author's weekly prepara
tions for the pulpit, without the faintest idea
of its publication. He was considerably im
pressed, and even affected by the death of Mr.
Fox, and, judging that the feelings of the con
gregation, among whom he has the honour and
happiness to officiate, were in unison with his-
own, he adopted a subject which he thought
would serve at once to express their common
sorrow, and to temper it with religious consi
derations. Whether he has been happy in the
choice of a subject must be left to the reader's
determination. It was at least, not unsuitable
to his hearers' state of mind. They were pleas
ed to express their approbation of the discourse,
by requesting, in a body, that it might be

11
printed. The Author mentions this circum
stance not to gratify any little feelings of va
nity (though, he wishes not to conceal the
pleasure which he derives from this new instance
of the esteem of the people with whom Provi
dence, in its goodness, has connected him,)
but to shew the real object of the publication,
¦which is, to testify on the part of the Gravel-Pit
congregation their admiration of Mr. Fox's
character, as a statesman, and their deep and
poignant regret at his loss.
Should the appearance of the discourse in
print be so interpreted by the public, the Au
thor will feel himself highly honoured. If there
be a further wish for him to entertain, it is,
(might his ambition extend so far) that this to
ken of the warm sympathy of a considerable
society of Protestant Dissenters may afford a
ray of comfort to the disconsolate minds of Mr.
Fox's personal friends, and especially to that
illustrious Nobleman, who is not more nearly
related to Mr. Fox by consanguinity than by
congeniality of talent and principle.

#

DISCOURSE,

Isaiah ii, 22, and iii. 1, 2, 3.
Cease ye from man whose breath is in his nostrils,
for wherein is he to be accounted of? For be
hold the Lord, the Lord of Hosts doth take away
from Jerusalem and from Judah, the stay and
the staff, the whole stay of bread and the whole
stay of water, the mighty man and the man of
war, the judge and the prophet and the prudent
and the antient, the captain of fifty and the ho
norable man and the counsellor, and the cunning
artificer and the eloquent orator.
The second, third, and fourth chapters of this
book contain one single prophetic vision. The
prophet first describes rhe prosperous state of
the people of Israel, "in the last days," under
the reign of the Messiah ; he next portrays in
lively colours the miseries they would undergo
in the intermediate time, then about to com
mence, involving their captivity in Babylon,
and their subjugation and dispersion by the Ro
mans f and he returns, in the last place, to the
B

pleasing subject with which the vision opens, —
their restoration and final happiness and glory.
The passage which I have read describes the
deplorable condition of the Jews during the pe
riod of their punishment— deplorable because
hopeless. In " the day of the Lord," as the
prophet emphatically ealls the time of their visi
tation, they would not only be assailed by cala
mity,- but would also, to aggravate their dis
tress, be deprived of "the stay and the staff,"
whose support would have enabled them to
withstand the shock ; of their firmest patriots
and ablest counsellors, who are as essential to
the strength of the body politic as " the stay of
bread and the stay of water" are to the suste
nance of the human body. Viewing them in
this wretched condition — a condition needing
all possible advice and assistance, and yet be
reaved of advice and assistance altogether, and
even of the hope of them, Isaiah, touched by
a feeling of melancholy, aud animated at the
same time by a warm sense of piety, calls upon
the people of Israel to forbear their confidence in
man, so frail and short-lived, and to repose their
trustin Jehovah, Ever«-living and Unchangeable.
The prophet's tender sentiment naturally
springs up in the human breast when any new
instance is presented to it of the frailty of
our common, nature, as the duty which he pre
scribes enforces itself powerfully upon tflfe mind
when it contemplates the fall, by death, of men

in high and eminently useful stations. Recent
events have familiarized us, my brethren, to the
sentiment, and have prepared us for the exhor
tation. Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his
nostrils, for wherein is he to be aecounted of ?
For, behold, the Lord, the Lord of Hosts, doth
take away from Jerusalem and from Judah the
stay and the staff", the whole stay of bread and"
the whole stay of water, the mighty man and the
man of war, the judge and the prophet and the
prudent and the antient, the captain of fifty and
the honorable man and the counsellor and the
cunning artificer and the eloquent orator.
Religion consists, in part, in the observance
of the order and course of Divine Providence.
It may, indeed, be resolved into a perpetual
and constraining sense, entertained by the mind,
of the government of Almighty God. This
powerful persuasion impels us to notice thc
varying events that take place on this stage of
action, and to refer them to the Supreme Being,
who is in reality the sole and universal agent.
Events which involve or affect the welfare of
empires we ascribe more readily, though not
more justly than others, however insignificant
their nature or circumscribed their operation,
to the Alniighty, because their magnitude seems
to comport in some measure with the Divine
greatness, and their independence, oftentimes,
of the will and power of man, necessitates us
B2

to consider them as the result of a will and
power which are uncontrolable and infinite..
Hence, the common sense of mankind has al
ways led them to regard national affairs as the
proper sphere, national events as the peculiar
acts of Providence. This view of things has,
it must be admitted, betrayed them occasion
ally into error and superstition ; but it is, when
regulated and restricted by right reason and the
scriptures of truth, both useful and improving.
Whatever habituates us to the idea of Deity is
favourable to our intellectual and moral ad
vancement. There is a conscious greatness felt
by the mind in contemplating the scenery
of important events, disentangled from the
prejudices, the passions and the interests of
men : even in calamity it derives consolation
and satisfaction from perceiving that the great
wheel of : human affairs is moved by the finger
of God, whose wisdom cannot err and whose
benevolence is the spring of all his actions.
The study of Providence is an incentive to
piety, an instrument of devotion ; agreeably to
the declaration of the Psalmist, in allusion to the
divine conduct towards nations, which incul
cates a precept by holding out a promise, Whoso
is wise and will observe these things, even they shall
understand the loving kindness of the Lord.
The duty of the present generation in this
particular is comparatively easy. Occurrences

of such a nature are daily taking place as forci
bly excite curiosity and attention. There may
fee a danger of our dwelling with too much
anxiety on public events, or of our referring
them to a wrong source ; but there is scarcely
a possibility of bur neglecting to observe them.
If their extraordinary and momentous nature
should fail to arouse our observation, the close
ness with which they press upon our interests
must necessarily awaken us. The Almighty is
instructing us by calamity.
Never, surely, was the situation of the world
more awfully interesting than at the present
moment. — We seem to have arrived at a crisis
in the fate of nations. The state, not of one
kingdom only, but of every kingdom, is mys*
terious and alarming. There is nothing en
every side of us but wars and rumours of wars.
If in any country there is quietness, it is only
the fearful pause that precedes a storm. Some
of the most antient European empires have
been broken up and dissolved ; others appear
to be on the eve of dissolution. Some, wasted
by a desperate and protracted struggle, lie in a
state of exhaustion, as if breathing their last;
some, without having put forth any extraordi
nary effort, are expiring in their own weak
ness ; all are burthened and oppressed by a
grievous weight of expenditure, which has al
ready far exceeded all calculation on their rate
of capacity, and threatens the most ruinous con-

6
sequences; and such as are least exhausted,
are collecting and concentrating their remains
of strength for the dreadful contest which
will, in all probability, decide the state of the
world for ages to come.
If from this general view of the political con
dition of the civilized world, we turn to survey
that of our own country in particular, we shall
perceive the hand of Providence equally ac
tive, and find the scenery around us equally
awful and portentous. The peace which we
hailed with so much joy was momentary and
delusive ; we had scarcely beheld it "when it
expired ; and the war which we now wage, is
novel and unprecedented in the British annals.
We are involved, almost for the first time, in a
struggle for existence. Our enemy is gigantic
in strength, rich in resources, unfathomable in
design, and it is to be feared, implacable in
hatred Our rulers  ¦  whom
the necessity, of the times has called into power,
distress having set that value upon talents
which the sense of the country was so reluctant
to acknowledge,  our rulers — — -
distinguished by their ability, we hope also by
their probity — have confessed that our condi
tion is critical, that our privations must be
great, our burthens long- continued, and that
our safety depends alone upon Providence. —
Forbearing to flatter our national pride, and

disdaining to propagate the delusion which has,
alas ! so long and fatally blinded us, they
warn us to stand prepared for sufferings which
no human power can ward off, and to which no
well-instructed mind can see a probable termi
nation. It deepens the gloom and augments the dis
tress of our condition, that whilst dangers mul
tiply around us, death has, time after time, ex
tinguished those talents to which we looked for
deliverance. An unusual mortality has prevailed
among our great men, and swept away our war
riors and statesmen. Within the compass of a
year, the nation has been deprived, by death, of
no less than four (not to mention more) of its
chiefs and leaders, two eminent in counsel
and two in arms : a military chief, whose
bravery had been tried in the East- and in the
West, whose unostentatious wisdom procured
him, still more than his courage, the respect and
confidence of his country, and who, having in a
period of clanger and alarm, relieved the distress
and calmed the mind of the sister-island, had
already exhibited the olive branch of peace, and
begun to sway the sceptre of justice, in the vast
continent of India, when he sunk under the
weight of his patriotic labour and anxiety, la
mented by us at home, and mourned with tears
of anguish by our unhappy fellow- subjects, of
various nations and religions in the eastern

world ;  A naval commander who was,
beyond dispute, pre-eminent in courage, in a
department of the British service where all our
countrymen are proverbially courageous, who to
unrivalled courage united skill, equally con
spicuous and extraordinary, who, in consequence
of these rare endowments, never led on our
fleets to battle that he did not conquer, and
whose name was a tower of strength to Eng
land and a terror to her foes;  a states
man, whose wonderful and brilliant talents,
inherited from his illustrious father, enabled
him, even in early youth, to astonish and cap
tivate the public mind, and to rule it, with abso
lute sway, for nearly twenty years, and who,
during that long period, directed or occasioned
those unparalleled events, which will fill poste
rity with astonishment, as they appear on re
cord, and of which the effects will not have
ceased until Europe shall have lost its proud dis
tinction amongst the several quarters of the
globe, and have become what Asia now is, the
sediment of its former strength and vigour ; 
and, lastly, a wise, patriotic, liberal and
upright, as well as eloquent statesman,
whose recent death has thrown a gloom over the
country and occasioned a painful sadness of
heart in the present assembly.
I dare not attempt a picture of this great
man : — the venerable simplicity of his charac-*

9
ter — the vast comprehension of his mind — his
natural, heartfelt, convincing and command
ing eloquence— and his political wisdom,
amounting almost to prophetic sagacity, have
been already and frequently described by per
sons who, from intimacy with his person and
long- continued attention to his public conduct,
best knew how to estimate his greatness, with
greater vigour of imagination and strength of
language than I possess, and with greater mi
nuteness than would be suitable to this place
and this occasion. I cannot, however, re
frain from tracing some few features of his
character, (sensible as I am, at the same time,
of my inability to do them justice,) which
were obvious to distant spectators like myself,
and which as they were, in fact, so many vir
tues, are fit objects of contemplation to a Chris
tian minister.
He was a zealous and steady friend to
THE liberties and happiness of the peo
ple. His love of freedom was the result of
sound principles, not of warm passions merely ;
hence, it did not die away with the fervour of
youth, but was uniform and constant : it was
moulded up with all, his habits of thinking and
acting- He considered Liberty as the natural
right of all men, and as the peculiar birth
right of Englishmen, guaranteed to them by
the political Constitution of their country;
and, therefore, he was invariably its champion

10
and guardian ; protecting and defending it un
der a strong sense of duty, and, in doing so,
superior to all anxiety, whether he pleased or
displeased those whom his labours were intend
ed to serve, whether he brought upon himself
the brand of reproach, or earned the laurel of
praise. His ardour in the sacred cause of freedom
never carried him, at the same time, beyond
the limits of moderation. His language was
never inflammatory, his measures never preci
pitate. He knew that the same wise and free
Constitution which secures the people's liber
ties, protects also the rights and prerogatives
of the Sovereign. He considered that order is
always a certain good, that change is frequently
an evil. His moderation was the more virtuous
on account of the peculiar circumstances in
which he stood : he was at the head of a consi
derable political party, and great bodies, once
set in motion, often move with dangerous
rapidity, and easily take fire ; he incurred, in
consequence of his principles, an extraordinary
degree of opprobrium and angry persecution,
and persecution and opprobrium have some
times overborne the patience of the most pru
dent, and as Solomon observes, made wise men
mad ; and he lived and took a part in trouble
some times, when men's opinions were gene
rally heated and warped by their passions, and

11
when the natron was divided into two virulent
parties, who ran into the widest extremes—
extremes, equally distant from prudence and
incompatible with freedom. Looking back
upon the animosities and contentions of this
period, those of us that were then most oppo
site in our notions and designs, shall now unite
in praising his moderation, and in acknow
ledging that it was the offspring of wisdom.
His wise and temperate conduct has established
a model of patriotism, which will be appealed
to, in all future periods of dissension and con
test, by the lovers of their country.
It is a truly honorable trait in the character
of this ever-to-be-lamented statesman, that he
was, at all times, the advocate, in the
SENATE, OF JUSTICE AND HUMANITY. 
Never, during the whole of his long parlia
mentary life, was his voice lifted up to justify
oppression or persecution : Never did the in
jured or oppressed appeal to the British senate
that he did not exert his noble eloquence on
their behalf. He made the cause of all that
were wronged his own; and, even where he
failed, through the perverseness of the times,
of procuring justice for them, he in a measure
compensated their sufferings by lending his
great talents to their cause, and by drawing
towards it the sympathy of mankind. In him,
the most discordant sects and the most distant

12
provinces found an ever- ready defender and a,
generous patron: he pleaded (and with what
strength of argument, what rich variety of il
lustration, what dignity of sentiment, what
majesty of diction?) for the equitable privi
leges of the Roman Catholic and the Protestant
Dissenter; and he contended, with an elo
quence alternately indignant and pathetic, for
the rights of the harassed Irish, the oppressed
Hindoos, and the suffering Africans. He
brought into office the same just and benevo
lent principles which he had maintained while
out of power. One of the first acts of his late
administration, (too short, alas! for his own
glory and our happiness !) was a measure for
the restriction of the Slave-Trade, and by
his means, a solemn resolution was voted by
the Senate and laid before the Sovereign, on the
justice and policy, the duty and necessity of
" the total abolition (to use his own strong ex
pression) of the abominable traffic." Indiscus-*
sing the former of these measures, he declared
on behalf of himself and such of his colleagues
as had voted with him on the subject when out
of office, in a fervour -of philanthropy, which
quickly communicated itself to the breast of
the country, and rekindled our warmest hopes,
that " they still felt the total abolition of the
Slave Trade as a step involving the dearest in
terests of humanity, and as one which, how-

13
ever unfortunate this administration might be
in other respects, should they be successful in
effecting it, would entail more true glory upon
their administration, and more honour upon their
country, than any other transaction in which
they could be engaged." Could party-spi
rit so far blind this nation as to render it
insensible to his merits, the grateful African
would commemorate his name, and plead with
the Parent of the Universe, in language which
is not disregarded in Heaven, for a blessing
on it
He was on all occasions the steady promoter
of peace, and, as a peacemaker also, our reli
gion enjoins us to bless his memory. He re
probated the wickedness, he deplored the cala
mities of war, begun unjustly or protracted
unnecessarily. He opposed, with all the vigour
of his great mind, that unnatural and violent
struggle between America and England, which
terminated in the disruption of the Colonies
from the mother country ; he unmasked the
false pretences, demonstrated the utter injus
tice, and foretold the ruinous consequences of
the late war — a war which impoverished this
nation, desolated a great part of Europe, filled
the world with misery, and sowed every where
the seeds of future hostilities ; and he depre
cated with all his profound wisdom, all his
manly eloquence, the contest in which we are

14
bow unhappily involved, beginning with a vio
lation of the national faith, and likely to end
in the aggrandisement of that overgrown and
menacing power which it was designed to check
and reduce. On every favourable opportunity
he interposed his pacific counsels. He was the
advocate of human nature ; he spoke its wishes
and sustained its cause ; and mankind looked
up to him as their patron. When, at length,
the necessity and distress of his country, which,
let it be remembered, he predicted, imperiously
demanded the aid of his great powers, and he
took the helm of affairs, he began, in the true
spirit of his character, negociations for peace ;
and Providence, in its inscrutable justice, has
removed him from us while the event of those
negociations is yet uncertain. He expired,
breathing those wishes for peace which it had
been the purpose of his life to carry into ef
fect; and peace, whenever we obtain it, will
be considered by a grateful country as the le
gacy which he has bequeathed to us : his me
mory will be associated with the blessing, and
will be for ever honoured in the association.
We feel and cannot but feel — we lament and
must deeply lament his loss — but we do not
feel or lament alone: all Europe sympathises
with us ! — for there is not a civilized nation
that did not confide in his integrity and revere
his wisdom.

15
But while we mourn, let us not murmur.
The ways of Providence, though mysterious,
are not unwise. The death of great and goojd
men is an event which instructs while it afflicts
us. It will even be serviceable to us, if it les
sen our confidence in an arm of flesh, and
carry our thoughts and our dependence towards
God. In the present state of our feelings, I have
judged that it would not be unsuitable or use
less to contemplate, through the medium of
religion, as exhibited in the words of the, pro
phet, the fall' of eminent men in critical and
eventful periods ; having in view, however, the
death, not of an individual only, but of the
several great and distinguished persons, who,
within a short space of time, have successively
dropt into the grave, leaving the world to gaze
with mingled amazement and awe upon their
vacant places, Cease ye from man whose breath
is in his nostrils, for wherein is he to be accounted
of? For behold, the Lord, the Lord of Hosts,
doth take away from Jerusalem and from Judah,
the stay and the staff, the whole stay of bread
and the whole stay of water, the mighty man and
the man of war, the judge and the prophet and
the prudent and the antient, the captain of fifty
and the honorable man and the counsellor and the
cunning artificer and the eloquent orator.

16
The Prophet expresses the evanescent nature
of man by a very lively and striking figure ;
man, whose breath is in his nostrils, — whose life
depends upon so precarious, unsubstantial, fu
gitive a thing as a breath of air ; — whose breath
is in his nostrils, ever ready to leave him, and
on the point of escape, — like an expiring taper,
which flutters with irregular glimmerings before
its extinction, and which the slightest accident
may put out. Such is man — his breath is in his
nostrils — cease from him — repose not unlimited
confidence in him, expect not certain good
from him, rest your hopes of the future upon
that Being who alone is eternal and unchange
able. — Cease from man, whose breath is in his
nostrils, for wherein is he to be accounted of? —
Who can reckon upon his aid ? for what can he
be depended on? His life is a vapour, and who
would rely for his to-morrow's comfort upon
the dissolving mist, the flitting cloud, or the
shifting wind ? Cease from man whose breath is
in his nostrils, for wherein is he to be accounted
of? The mortality of man is a striking lesson of
the vanity of human nature. The death of any
individual, however mean and obscure, is a
humiliating event ; the death of the great ones
of the earth shews the insignificance and no
thingness of sublunary greatness. Man in his
best estate, not in poverty and weakness and a

low condition, but in opulence, honour and
power, in his best estate, is altogether vanity.
The only great and the only mean, in the
scale of creation, are the immortal and the mor
tal — in the balance of reason, the wise and the-
foolish— in the estimate of religion, the virtu
ous and the vicious. What then is high sta
tion ? — I will tell you, my brethren: — it is a
slippery eminence, which one worm has climbed
above his fellow- worm, and from which he at
length falls — (with a descent humiliating in
proportion to his boasted elevation) — into his
native dust.
Can greatness awe off a single pain ? Can it
arrest the progress of decay ? Can it shield it
self from the stroke of death ? What are its
powers, what its immunities ? Can it inter
change the natures of right and wrong ? Can
' it transmute truth into error, and error into
truth ? Can it make vice reverend, and virtue
base and contemptible? What can it do? — It
can entrench and imprison a man in odious
forms during the whole of his life; at his
death, it can attract the eyes of a nation upon
the humbling spectacle of his ashes ; after
death, it confers upon him the privilege of.
having a name among posterity, of having his .
actions scrutinized with impartial, rigorous jus
tice, and of undergoing an assessment of cha»
G

IS
fracter, a moral retribution, only less awful than'
that of the final judgment.
More it canimt do. It gives aspiring man
celebrity, but it cannot give him immortality:
—it raises a blade of grass a little higher, and
clothes it with a deeper verdure, a more varie
gated colouring than its equals, but it cannot
alter its nature ; it cannot make it less frail, less
exposed, less short-lived, " All flesh is as grass.,
and all the glory of man as the flower of grass.
The grass withereth and the flower thereof fail
eth away."
This view of terrestrial grandeur leads us irre
sistibly to theProphet's sentiment and reflection .
" Cease from man, whose breath is in his nos
trils, for wherein is he to be accounted of?"
In the first place ; Let the consideration of
the brief and fugitive nature of man, even when
most powerful and most honored, extinguish
all our little animosities and contentions, spring
ing from party spirit. Some political opinions
and characters we must necessarily prefer to
others ; but why should our attachments
straiten our benevolence, and expel from our
bosoms the charities of nature ? The leaders
under whom we arrange ourselves, are, as we
are; children of the dust, and will perish with
ns. — How still, now, are the two great rival
statesmen, who so lately usurped our hearts,
agitated our passions, and divided us from each

19
other ! They lie still and are quiet, they sleep
and are at rest ! !
Let us learn from their death the lesson which
we sometimes forgot during their lives, and,
whatever be our predilections or opinions, let
us be at peace one with another.
We are travellers in an unexplored and diffi
cult countryi — All our charity and kindness
will not do more than make the journey sup
portable, and our malevolence and hostility
would make it intolerably wretched. — We shall
all lie down in the same bed at night, and all
rise as members of the same family in the
morning : Let us -therefore not fall out by the
way. In the second place ; Let the death of men of
eminent talents and usefulness warn us, how
easily and speedily a proud nation may be
humbled, and reduced from the highest pitch
of prosperity and power to the lowest degree
of weakness and distress. The state of a com
munity depends upon the character of its ad
visers and governors, and fluctuates as that
changes. A i'ew men, perhaps, a single man,
in power, shall decide the fate of a country and
of the world; whence it is, that power is so
solemn a trust, and that it is of such moment
ous importance that it should be committed to
the hands only of men of tried .virtue and emi
nent talents. When governors are  —
c 2

20
what, that great man was, whose loss (irrepa
rable loss ! ) we this day mourn,  when
they are, able and patriotic, they are, as the
Prophet forcibly describes them, their country's
Stay and staff, and when they fall, the nation
which they supported declines and tends to
ruin. Isaiah had predicted, with respect to
Israel, that the lofty looks of man , should be
humbled, and the haughtiness of man should be
bowed down, and he delineates in the text
the manner of this unhappy people's abase
ment : the Lord, the Lord of Hosts, doth take
away from Jerusalem and from Judah, the stay
And the staff, the whole stay of bread and the whole
stay of water, the mighty man and the man of
war, the judge and the prophet, and the prudent
and the antient, the captain of fifty and the ho~
norable man and the counsellor, and the cunning
artificer and the eloquent orator, All their men
of wisdom and courage would, by one means
or other, be removed ; in the place of whom,
as it follows immediately after, children would be
their princes, and babes would rule over them.
To reduce a people, however high and lifted
up, to this low contrition, requires no compli
cate contrivance, no elaborate preparation, no
progressive judgments on the part of Divine
Providence; the death of a few illustrious indi
viduals will bring about the fatal change. The
slaying of the first born js the last of the
3

21
plagues of heaven, and, as it is the most ter^
rible, so also is it the most instructive. When
thou, God, with rebukes dost correct man for ini
quity, thou makest his beauty to consume away
like a moth : surely every man is vanity !
It is not without design that Providence has
by so many successive visitations deprived us
of our ablest statesmen and most valiaut war
riors. The design even of this national chas
tisement may be merciful ; and it will appear so,
if it have the effect (which I pray God it may
have!) of awakening us from our torpor, of
turning us, like Jonah's warning to the Nine-
vites, from our evil way and from the violence that
is in our hands, and of causing us to cry mightily
unto God: but should it, on the contrary, have
no effect, should our national pride be still un
subdued, our boastings uncorrected, our crimes
unrepented and unforsaken,  then, in
deed, it may be interpreted as an omen that
the Lord hath a controversy with the inhabitants
¦ of the land, and that we are devoted, for our
sins, to suffer more than common calamities.
To lie, in such a state of things, supine and
thoughtless, would be a distressing symptom
of our being under the dominion of that moral
apathy — that morbid indifference to the agency
x>f heaven, which in so many other nations has.
preceded destruction. Be thou instructed, is
it.he language of Almighty God in the events

22
which we have lately witnessed — Be thou in
structed, 0 Jerusalem, lest my sou1 depart from
thee; lest I make thee desolate, a land notinha*
Sited. In the third place ; The death of eminently
wise and philanthropic statesmen shews us the
vanity of all those hopes of the melioration of
•mankind, which are built solely upon the capa
cities of human nature. Such men are prodi
gies. One of them scarcely rises up in a course
of ages ; and when such an one disappears, he
leaves a chasm, which we despair, and justly,
of seeing filled up. A second Alfred has not
appeared in the line of British, nor of European
Princes, and long, in all probability very long,
will it be, ere there will be found in the roll of
British statesmen, an equal to him whose loss
afflicts us on the present occasion. The me
mory, indeed, of these illustrious characters
survives for the instruction of posterity, but
their virtue and their wisdom cannot be com
municated to their successors ; and when, after
a long interval, men shall arise with equal ta
lents and equal moral worth, they will have to
act, in some measure, as if they were the first
benefactors of their species, — they will have to
combat anew difficulties which their distant
predecessors have overcome — when they have
reached their point of perfection they will fail
ed the world will wait for ages for^the re-ap-

23
pearance of similar excellence and greatness,
The human race is perpetual, but the existence
of minds in such a degree of perfection is oc
casional, rare and wonderful.
Shall we then despair of the improvement of
mankind? Shall we bury our hopes in the
grave of the philanthropist ? Far from Christians
be such despondence. While we rebuke the pride
of human nature and the delusive pretensions
of a false philosophy, let us cherish, with heart
felt pleasure, the glowing expectations of reli-
, gion. At the same time, and for the same rea
son, that we cease from man, let us trust in
God, whose promises are sure, whose provi
dence is universal, beneficent, and almighty,
and who, by ways mysterious to us, is train
ing up the world to perfection. He, if he
please, can raise up extraordinary agents of his
designs from among mankind, or he can, to our
view, supersede human agency altogether. Who
ever and whatever be the instruments of his
purposes, every age advances towards their
consummation; and, in the end, he will certainly
accomplish that glorious state of things, unafc-
tainable by mere mortal power, which the Pro
phet has described in connexion with the words
of the text, comprehending every blessing in
that signal and fundamental one of PEACE,
when men shall beat their swords into plough
shares, and their spears into pruning-hooks ; when

nation shall not lift up sword against nation, nei
ther shall they learn war any more.
In the last place; The mortality and death
of the greatest and best of men, whilst it Serves
to draw off our confidence from human nature,
in its present frail and imperfect state, natu
rally inspires us with the hope and desire of
immortality. As we follow the ashes of a great
and good man to his sepulchral home, who can
forbear thus to inquire— -thus to reason : " Is
" so much talent extinguished, never to be re-
" lighted ? so much knowledge buried, never
" to be recovered ? so much virtue sunk, never
'' to rise again ? The order of na,ture, the cha-
" racter of the God of nature forbids the me-
*' lancholy sentiment. In a world, so harmo-
" nious and orderly as this, mental maturity
" cannot be the signal for decay, an approach
" to perfection cannot be a qualification for, a
" tendency to destruction ! As well might we
" conclude that, when summer yields to the
" empire of winter,- it has abdicated all domi-
" nion over the earth for ever ; or, that, when
*' the orb of day quits our hemisphere, he, wilj
" never re-appear."
Yet, were the testimony of nature ambigiiT
ous, that of revealed religion would be certain^
and decisive, whieh turns upon a future life a*
its axis. Christianity, in particular, makes-
known the mode by which we shall be restored

25
to being — ¦ — a resurrection. It, herein,
provides an antidote to the fear of death, and
leaves us not to sorrow as those that have no
hope. We have, with the apostle, the sentence
of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in
ourselves ; but we are instructed (oh ! unspeak
able privilege,) to place our confidence in God,
who raiseth the dead. Our departed friends and
counsellors and defenders seem, it is true, to
say to us, from their graves, " Cease ye from
" man, whose breath is in his nostrils, for
" wherein is he to be accounted of?"' — : — but
Jesus, the Prince of Life and Lord of Glory,
rebukes our melancholy, invites our trust, and
encourages our, gladness:  " fear not;
" I AM HE THAT LIVETH AND WAS DEAD, AND,
" BEHOLD, I AM ALIVE FOR EVER MORE, AND
*' HAVE THE KEYS OF HELL AND OF DEATH.''

FINIS.

1022

Lately published
BY THE SAME AUTHOR.

1. DIVINE JUDGMENTS ON GUILTY NATIONS;
tHEis Causes and Effects Considered: A Discourse
delivered at Newport, in the Isle of Wight, before a Congre
gation of Protestant Dissenters. With Notes, by B. Flower,
Second Edition. Price Two Shillings.
2. REFLECTIONS UPON THE LIBERAL SPIRIT OF
THE APOSTLES, AND THE BENEVOLENT DESIGN
OF THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY . A Discourse deliver
ed on Sunday, July 7, 1805: Before the Unitarian Congre.
gation, Hackney, on Occasion of entering on the Pastoral
Office. Price One Shilling.

C. Stower, Printer,
Paternoster-row.