Xlviil  PREFACE

ments  and  connections,  at  home  or  abroad,
my  sentiments  remain  unchanged ;  and  I  de-
precate any  union  or  compromise  to  be  made
with  it,  or  its  adherents,  that  can  possibly
be  avoided  ;  lest  we  draw  upon  ourselves  a
participation  in  her  plagues,  even  while  her
Judgment  is  before  our  eyes.  I  must  confess  I
cannot  easily  conceive  how  the  future  "death
of  the  witnesses"  can  be  supposed  to  attain
its  accomplishment,  to  the  temporary  ruin  of
the  protest  ant  cause  and  party  ;  except  it  be
by  way  of  a  short  but  smart  chastisement  of
some  error  of  this  kind,  by  a  time-serving  and
sinful  policy,  in  departing  from  the  true  prin-
ciples of  the  reformation,  in  favor  of  popery,
through  flattery  or  fear  of  her  rising  greatness
and  terror.*    It  will  be  a  grievous  aggravation

*  No  friend  to  human  nature  will  envy  the  heroes  of  the
continent  the  fatiguing  harvest  of  glory,  they  have  reaped  in
England.  And  much  less  so  the  well  earned  honors  de-
creed to  the  great  Wellington — "himself  an  host." — But
John  Bull  has  bellowed  out  his  applause  in  a  sort  of  stile,
which  will  impress  the  minds  of  the  illustrious  foreigners
with  an  idea  of  the  english  character,  as  much  below  the
medium  tenor  of  human  nature,  as  the  unparalleled  efforts
of  our  glorious  defenders  by  sea  and  land,  have  elevated  it
above  that  standard.    Mr  Bull  seems  to  have  lost  sight


PREFACE  xllX

of  our  sufferings,  to  be  obliged  by  a  too  late
repentance,  to  acknowledge  that  our  folly  has
deserved  them ;  and  to  be  ourselves  scourged
by  the  very  lash  which  our  own  hands  have
strengthened,  and  platted  afresh  for  the  un-
grateful execution.  (2d  Exod.  sec.  13th  and
sec.  28th — and  vol.  iii.  p.  236. — Isai.  xxvu
10,  11).
