The works of Richard Hurd, volume 8 (of 8)

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Ordered, by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, in Parliament assembled, That the Thanks of this House be, and are hereby, given to the Lord Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, for the Sermon by him preached before this House, this day, in the Abbey Church, Westminster; and he is hereby desired to cause the same to be forthwith printed and published.
Ashley Cowper, Cler. Parliamentor.
I called mine own ways to remembrance: and turned my feet unto thy testimonies.
The great object of this day’s solemnity, is, to humble ourselves before Almighty God, in order to obtain pardon of our sins . But this end requires, that we enter into an earnest recollection of our ways , and stedfastly resolve to forsake all those, which we shall find reason to condemn.
Such is the example set us by the royal author of the text: And, though it might claim our respect at all times, it especially does so, at this juncture, when our sins have brought down upon us the heaviest of those judgments, with which it pleases God to visit, and, if it may be, to reclaim, offending nations.
And the hand of Heaven is not the less, but the more visible in this calamity, for it’s befalling us, when the acknowledged power of our country seemed to secure it against all resistance, both within and without; and when it was not to be expected, from the usual course of human affairs, that an attempt of this nature, so unprovoked, at once, and so hazardous, would be made. Something there must have been, much amiss in that people, against whom the Almighty permits the sword of civil fury, under such circumstances, to be drawn.
From what causes , and by what steps , this portentous mischief hath grown up to it’s present size and terror, it is not needful, and may not be proper, for me to say. For which of us is unacquainted with these things? And how ill suited to the modest piety of this day would be, the vehement accusation of others, or the sollicitous justification of ourselves!