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fcarce ever been presented to the observation of mankind. I know not whether we are to except even that celebrated one recorded in the first book of Kings, where a great and a pious monarch, in the presence of his whole kingdom, proftrated himself before that magnificent edifice, which he had just erected to the honour of his Maker, and then spreading forth his hands towards Heaven, poured out the devout emotions of his foul, in that inimitable prayer delivered down to us in the facred writings*. This, it must be confeffed, was a scene most eminently calculated to raise the foul towards Heaven; to fill it with the fublimeft concep→ tions of the Deity, and to impress it with the livelieft fentiments of veneration, piety, devotion, and gratitude. And furely effects of a fimilar nature, and little inferior in degree, may be expected from the prefent aweful folemnity. For though the two occafions are, it must be owned, in fome refpects diffimilar; though we are not now met to dedicate a TEMPLE to God; yet we are met, I trust, for a ftill nobler dedication, for the dedication of a WHOLE PEOPLE, with their SOVEREIGN at

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their head, to their Almighty Protector, their common Benefactor and Deliverer; for the dedication of ourselves, our fouls and bodies, throughout the whole courfe of our future lives, to his worship, his fervice, his laws, and hist religion. Nothing less than this can be any adequate return to our heavenly Father, for raifing up our beloved Sovereign from the bed of fickness, and preferving to us, in his perfon, every thing that is dear and valuable to us, as Men, as Britons, and as Chriftians. For how is it poffible, on fuch an occafion as the present, not to remember, or not to acknowledge, the many other invaluable bleffings we poffefs, as well as that which completes and confirms them all, that which we this day commemorate? Are we not as a people bleft beyond example, and almoft beyond belief? Do we not enjoy the pureft mode of worship, the best conftituted form of government, the most equal laws, the most able and most upright adminiftration of justice? Are we not perfectly fecure in our perfons, our properties, our civil and religious liberties? Are not our manufactures flourishing, our population encreafing, our public burdens gradually leffening, our

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agriculture

agriculture highly improved, our commerce boundless? Are not the marks of peace, of comfort, of chearfulness, of affluence, vifible on every fide; and are not our credit, and reputation abroad, commenfurate to our profperity and happiness at home?

If this be a true picture of our fituation, how can we ever exprefs, as we ought, our thankfulness to the gracious Author of all these mercies? It is not the obfervance, it is not the devotion, however ardent, of a single day, that can be a fufficient evidence of our gratitude. The only fure and certain proof of our fincerity, is the reformation of our hearts, and the future holiness of our lives. This is a language which cannot be mistaken; a language, which speaks to the senses of mankind, and is fure of being heard and accepted at the Throne of Grace. In the exterior acts of worship, our hearts may not always accompany our lips. We may be lukewarm, inattentive, or infincere. But he, who from a principle of gratitude to Heaven, renounces those favourite fins, which most easily beset him, and devotes himself to the fervice of his Maker, can never be fufpected of pretended

fanctity

fanctity or hypocritical devotion. Here, then, at this folemn hour, and in this facred place, when we are offering up our thanksgivings to God, let us, at the fame time, facrifice, at the foot of his altar, our vices, our follies, our paffionate fondness for diverfions, our exceffive attachments to any purfuits that tend to draw off our affections from Heaven and heavenly things: and more especially our frequent, our growing profanations of that facred day which our Maker claims AS HIS OWN; which is the great fecurity and bulwark of our Religion the great barrier against the inroad of fecularity and diffipation; which ought never to be debased by unbecoming levities, by worldly occupations, by dangerous amusements, by any thing, in fhort, that tends to defecrate the Christian Sabbath, to obliterate that mark of difcrimination, which divine authority, and primitive ufage, have ftamped upon it, and to fink it into the common mass of unhallowed days. It is a feftival, we own, it is a moft joyful festival; but it is a religious one too and it fhould be obferved, not with intemperate gaiety, nor yet with a gloomy and auftere fuperftition, but with that rational piety, that decent

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decent, modeft, chastised, and fober chearfulnefs, which fo well becomes the character of the day; and which (with fome exceptions) has, in fact ufually distinguished it in this kingdom. It is a diftinction which does honour to us as a people. It is what few other Christian countries can boast. It is altogether worthy of the first Proteftant Church in Europe; and no reasoning, no ridicule, no falfe ambition to imitate the freer manners of our neighbours on the continent, should ever induce us to give it up.

But, at the fame time, let not external obfervances constitute the whole of our Religion; let us be Chriftians, not in name and appearance only, but in deed and in truth; and, above all, let us cultivate that heavenly spirit of meeknefs, gentleness, forbearance, candour, equity and charity, which is the diftinguishing character of the Gospel, and which ought to mark diftinctly every part of our conduct, both public and private. Let it instantly banish from our hearts "all bitterness, and

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wrath, and clamour, and anger, and evilfpeaking, with all malice;" and let us become, what we have every reafon upon earth

to

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