more extended to us; and that by a speedy and effectual reformation of our hearts and lives, we may remove or lighten those heavy judgments which our iniquities have now moft juftly drawn down upon us. This, I know, is holding a language which they who compliment themselves with the name of PHILOSOPHERS will treat with fovereign contempt. But let them enjoy their triumph; and let them allow us, who think Chriftianity the best philosophy, to confole ourselves, amidst the gloom that at present surrounds us, with those reviving hopes which the belief of God's providential government prefents to us *. If this be fuperftition, it is fo delightful a fuperftition, that it would be inhuman to deprive us of it. But we know in whom we trust; we know that this truft refts on a foundation which cannot be fhaken. It refts, as we have feen, not only on the express declarations and promises of holy writ, but on the many remarkable inftances of a fupernatural agency which occur in the history of mankind, and above all in our own. In * We may, I truft, on the fame grounds entertain even now the fame reviving hopes. Indeed much of the reafoning made fe of in this difcourfe applies moft remarkably to the prefent circumstances of this country. every one of the extraordinary national deliverances above-mentioned, the dangers that threatened this island were of a much greater magnitude, and more formidable afpect, than those which now feem to alarm us. Why, then, may we not again indulge ourselves with the fame expectations? A series of past favours naturally begets a prefumption of their continuance; and it must not be wholly imputed to the laudable partiality which every honeft man entertains for his own country, if we give way to a perfuafion, that God will ftill vouchfafe his accustomed goodness to this favoured land. Yes, we will footh ourselves with the belief, that a nation fo distinguished as this has been with happier revolutions, and greater bleffings, than any other ever experienced, will not be at this time deferted by its gracious Benefactor and Protector. It is here that civil liberty has fixed her throne; it is here that proteftantism finds its firmest support; it is here that the divine principle of toleration is established; it is here that a provifion is made by government for the poor; it is here that they are with a boundless munificence relieved both by private charity and public inftitutions; it is here, in fine, that the laws are equal, wife, and good; that they are administered by men of acknowledged ability, and unimpeached integrity; and that through their hands the stream of justice flows with a purity unknown in any other age or nation. Nor have we only the happiness of enjoying these unspeakable advantages ourselves; we have had the glory (a glory fuperior to all conquests, to all triumphs) of diffufing a large proportion of them over the remotest regions of the globe. Wherever our difcoveries, our commerce, or our arms have penetrated, they have in general carried the laws, the freedom, and the religion, of this country along with them. Whatever faults and errors we may be chargeable with in other refpects, for thefe gifts at leaft, the most invaluable that one country can bestow upon another, it is not improbable that both the eastern and the western world may one day acknowledge that they were originally indebted to this kingdom. Is it then a vain, is it a delufive imagination, that, after having been made the chosen inftruments of Providence for fuch noble, fuch beneficial purposes, there is fome degree of felicity still in reserve for us, and that the illustrious part we have been appointed to act on the great theatre of the world is not yet accomplished? What may be in the councils of THE MOST HIGH; what mighty changes he may be now meditating in the fyftem of human affairs, he alone can tell. But in the midst of this awful fufpence, while the fate of empires hangs trembling on his refolves, of one thing at least we are abfolutely certain; that it is better to have him for our friend than our enemy. Which of the two he fhall be, depends entirely upon ourselves. If by our infidelity, our impiety, our libertinifm, our ill-timed gaiety and wanton profufenefs in the very face of public distress, we audaciously infult his admonitions, and brave his utmost vengeance; what else can we expect but that every thing which ought naturally to be the means of our stability, will be converted into inftruments of our deftruction? That immenfe dominion, of which we fhall then be no longer worthy, will be gradually rent away from us; and it may even What mighty changes in the fyftem of human affairs have fince this period (1778) actually taken place both in America and in Europe, the reader need not be informed. become become neceffary for the welfare of mankind, to cut off our communication with distant countries, left they be infected with the contagion of our fins. But if, on the contrary, by reverencing the judginents of God, and returning to that allegiance which we owe him, we again put ourselves under his protection; he may ftill, as he has often done, dispel the clouds that hang over us: or if, for wife reafons, he suffer them to gather and darken upon he may make even this, in the final result, conduce to our real welfare. us; There is, in fact, no calamity, private or public, which, under his gracious direction, may not eventually prove a bleffing. There are no loffes, but that of his favour, which ought to fink us into defpair. There is a spirit in freedom, there is an energy in virtue, there is a confidence in Religion, which will enable those that poffefs them, and those only, to rise fuperior to every difafter. It is not a boundless extent of territory, nor even of commerce, that is effential to public profperity. They are neceffary, indeed, to national greatness, but not to national felicity. The true wealth, the true fecurity of a kingdom, confifts in frugality, induftry, Q4 |