any one to disseminate. Nay more, by the very miseries which he has inflicted on the human race, he has occasioned a spirit of humihation and of piety, which, unless at the Reformation and in the apostolic age, never before obtained in Europe to the extent it now does. True it is, " he never meant these things, nor did they ever enter into his mind ;" but still he has been an instrument in God's hand of effecting them.]
2. His great success —
[Nothing could stand before Sennacherib^: and till lately, nothing has been able to withstand this proud oppressor, whom we are comparing with him. Nation after nation has he sub- jugated; so that what Sennacherib said may be justly said by him also, " Are not my princes altogether kings™?" Whilst he raised his generals to the rank of kings, he made the old esta- blished kings his vassals. And truly one part of Sennacherib's commission he executed to perfection : if he had believed him- self *' charged by God, to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread men down like mire in the streets"," he could not have fulfilled his mission with more fidelity or with less remorse. He truly regarded the wealth of all the countries which he invaded, as " eggs found in a nest ;" and he transported to his own capital every thing that was valuable, that the seat of his empire might become the centre of all that was great and gloi'ious in the world. Yea, not content with acting thus towards the nations that opposed him, he exercised the same rapacity towards neutral, and unoffending states"; and, whilst he was " gathering all the earth, there was none that moved the wing, or opened the mouth, or peeped^," or dared even to remon- strate wdth him, and much less to oppose by force, his tyrannical proceedings. In a word, he " removed the bounds of nations," apportioning them according to his own pleasure, and " robbed their treasures i," compelling all of them to augment and sup- port his armies ; and, with the exception of our favoured land, he exercised in every country a most despotic sway ; and, if he could but have placed any bounds to his tyranny, and been content with consolidating instead of extending his dominions, he would have been the uncontrolled governor of Europe at this hour.]
3. His atheistic pride —
[The Assyrian monarch took to himself all the glory of his conquests : " By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom; for I am prudent ^" And how astonish- ingly striking is the resemblance between our great enemy
' ver. 9 — 11. m ver. 8. " ver. 6.
" The Hanse Towns especially. p ver. 14.
•J ver. 13. >" ver. 13.