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    their sovereign to a kingdom , which the prudence and firmness of his predecessor have transmitted to him unimpaired in dignity and strength , it is the duty of him , who is commissioned to persuade men to lay hold upon that kingdom which cannot be moved , to remind his hearers , that the most splendid ornaments , which decorate the fabric of society , belong only to the present scene . The period is at hand , when their possessors , if they have escaped the trials of adverse fortune , must lay them aside ; and abide the scrutiny of their omniscient Judge , divested of ail that is not essential to the being of a moral agent . At that hour , how little comfort will be derived

    from the shadows of departing glory , the faded purple , the tarnished gold , the broken sceptre of their worldly state 1 But how rich and sublime a consolation will be that of the Christian monarch , who has made God his strength , and Christ his salvation , and the Gospel his rule of government j and who can thus sum up the true glories of his regality , and the history of his rule ; I put on righteousness , and it clothed me ; my judgement was as a robe and a diadem "—Pp . 14 , 15 .

    Had Mr . Aspland officiated on the occasion , he would have been excited to a more glowing strain of eloquence than the Bishop is perhaps capable of . This is evident from his introductory allusion to the ceremony :

    " The coronation of a king , always an imposing spectacle , is in this case the more impressive to the nation , in that the August Personage who is called by Divine Providence to fill the throne , has distinguished himself , beyond almost all his predecessors , by an immediate and spontaneous atten-t tion to the wants and wishes of his people , and has summoned around him . servants who have been long honoured for their public integrity , and- have pledged themselves by the whole of their past lives to measures which have

    for their object the reformation of the frame of government , so as to adapt it to the altered and improved condition of the age , the healing of discon ^ tents and the union of all classes of men in the enjoyment of common laws and equal rights , the lessening of the public burthens , the preservation of peace and the cultivation of amicable intercourse with all nations , the

    diffusion of useful knowledge , and the promotion of the national industry and wealth . They who behold with indifference a mere state-ceremonial , or smile at a pageantry which in the lapse of time , and the growth of reason , may have lost much of its meaning and all its fitness , must still feel that there is moral grandeur in the exhibition of the Ruler of one of the most powerful , rich , and refined nations of the earth , entering with sincerity and solemnity , and before the face of the whole people ,, into a covenant to reign legally , uprightly , and beneficially , and appealing to Heaven to witness his

    vows , and to ratify his obligations , and to send down a blessing upon them , a common blessing to himself and the people committed to his oharge Amidst such a scene , a sympathy with both King and People is as rational , amiable , and Christian , as it is natural ; and the Christian minister who is most careful to exclude from the pulpit all political topics that engender or irritate party feeling , may consistently recognize , share , and endeavour to improve , the universal sentiment . Such at least is my own sense of propriety , and , acting upon it , I shall take occasion from the words of the text

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    Coronation Sermons . 729

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1831, page 729, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2603/page/5/