gdom, were presented to him. It was remarked that
the very foremost among those corporations was the University of Oxford.
The eloquent composition in which that learned body extolled the wisdom,
the courage and the virtue of His Majesty, was read with cruel vexation
by the nonjurors, and with exultation by the Whigs. [823]

The rejoicings were not yet over. At a council which was held a
few hours after the King's public entry, the second of December was
appointed to be the day of thanksgiving for the peace. The Chapter of
Saint Paul's resolved that, on that day, their noble Cathedral, which
had been long slowly rising on the ruins of a succession of pagan
and Christian temples, should be opened for public worship. William
announced his intention of being one of the congregation. But it was
represented to him that, if he persisted in that intention, three
hundred thousand people would assemble to see him pass, and all the
parish churches of London would be left empty. He therefore attended
the service in his own chapel at Whitehall, and heard Burnet preach a
sermon, somewhat too eulogistic for the place. [824] At Saint Paul's the
magistrates of the City appeared in all their state. Compton ascended,
for the first time, a throne rich with the sculpture of Gibbons, and
thence exhorted a numerous and splendid assembly. His discourse has not
been preserved; but its purport may be easily guessed; for he preached
on that noble Psalm: "I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go
into the house of the Lord." He doubtless reminded his hearers that, in
addition to the debt which was common to them with all Englishmen, they
owed as Londoners a peculiar debt of gratitude to the divine goodness,
which had permitted them to efface the last trace of the ravages of the
great fire, and to assemble once more, for prayer and praise, after
so many years, on that spot consecrated by the devotions of thirty
generations. Throughout London, and in every part of the realm, even
to the remotest parishes of Cumberland and Cornwall, the churches were
filled on the morning of that day; and the evening was an evening of
festivity. [825]

These was indeed reason for joy and thankfulness. England had passed
through severe trials, and had come forth renewed in health and
vigour. Ten years before, it had seemed that both her liberty and her
independence were no more. Her liberty she had vindicated by a just and
necessary revolution. Her independence s