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in extending private influence, and enlarging their own property; when, in these contentions, every bound of decency, justice, and humanity is overleaped, every art of violence, falsehood, and chicanery is practised; what is there, that can uphold the credit and well-being of a state? What is there, that can prevent a total relaxation and contempt of order and authority? What will avail the fences of legal restraint, or royal dignity? What shall enforce submission abroad, or check lawless riot and defiance at home? What, in short, shall shield us from general ruin, that stands ready to meet us, in a thousand shapes? The virtue of individuals may indeed, it is to be hoped, awhile respite our fate, and prevent the accomplishment of that destruction we have deserved. But let not this hope carry us too far: the virtue of individuals may suspend, but it cannot stop, the ruin of a nation. This only can be effected by a general change of manners and principles. Nor, without this change, can even this private virtue itself be of long duration: for, though the branches may, for a time, retain the appearance of verdure, yet, where the root is thus wounded and corrupted, they will soon partake of the general decay, and, with the parent tree, will tend, by a hasty progress, to inevitable ruin.

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If, therefore, our sins be so flagrant and enor mous, and these sins so certainly tend to ruin and extirpation; have we not just cause to weep over this our Jerusalem, and to fear the signal judgments of God hanging over us? Nor let any fancy themselves unconcerned in the dreadful consequences, to be apprehended from our multiplied sins: for, however the best of us may flatter ourselves with security, from our own righteousness, it is a truth, not to be disputed, that, in national judgments, all must suffer! The pious Abraham, indeed, reverently said, "to destroy the righteous with the wicked, "that be far from thee;" but events prove that destruction, like the grave, knows no dis-tinction.

When, therefore, the judgments of God are abroad in the earth, let none flatter themselves with vain hopes of exemption or security. The way, and the only way, to avoid them, is a general and unfeigned sorrow and humiliation before God for national crimes demand national expiation; and, where every man, by his sins, has contributed his share to the danger of his country, every man, by his repentance, must contribute to save it. But they should, especially, take the lead in this important duty, whose stations, or superior rank, whose influence,

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ence, or authority, have contributed to infect the manners of the people with corruption, and therefore may, and ought also to take the lead in restoring true piety, and unfeigned virtue. If, therefore, any part of the guilt of this land has begun at the sanctuary, where it ought least to have begun, it is the duty of the priests, the ministers of the Lord, to weep between the porch and the altar, for their own sins, and the sins of the people.If venality, lust, and impiety have been derived, from the nobles of the land, to the lower orders among us; let them be the first, to exert the influence, which they receive from their superior rank, to repair the breaches of the Lord, and to humble themselves before God, in sackcloth and ashes.-If the magistrates, by neglecting to enforce those salutary laws, with the execution of which they are entrusted, have given stability to violence, and confidence to impiety; let them atone for their past negligence, by exemplary penitence and devotion, and by a steady, vigorous, and impartial exercise of their power.-And, if the masters and guardians of families have, by their example and practice, countenanced a neglect of God's sabbaths, and his divine worship, or the practice of vice and profaneness; let them, for the future, repair to the house of God, with their sons and their daughters, their men-ser

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vants and their maid-servants, that the house of God may be full, and that they may fall down, with united hearts and voices, before the Lord their maker: and, at the same time, let them, at home, be patterns to their children and dependents, in repentance, meekness, sobriety, and every other Christian virtue.

And this repentance is incumbent upon every one of us, my brethren, from the strongest motives, that can actuate a reasonable creature, a regard for ourselves, our country, our church, and our posterity. And surely, such arguments as these, cannot want any additional weight:they need not eloquence to enforce, or persuasion to recommend them;-they speak for themselves, by an irresistible power: for let every man seriously ask himself only these plain and obvious questions :-Is it nothing, that I am devoting myself to the flames of hell,-that I am betraying that country to destruction, for whose defence the blood of so many brave Britons has been spilt;-that I am subverting the foundations of that pure church, which is the glory of protestantism, and the pillar of Christianity itself;-that I am entailing slavery and vengeance upon my posterity?-Let any man ask himself these questions, and it is impossible not to foresee what answer he must return;-it

is impossible not to foresee, that the duties of repentance and obedience will press themselves upon him with redoubled force and energy.

To these great arguments, therefore, let me call upon you seriously to attend. As reasonable creatures, weigh and consider the consequences of your actions. Let not misguiding custom, or erroneous example, thoughtless dissipation, or prevalent interest, be your only guides ye have much nobler views to direct you, if ye will but attend to them: they can. but lead you to present destruction, and future misery; but present glory awaits the paths of virtue, here, and the gates of immortality are open to her, hereafter.

Begin, therefore, the great and important work of repentance, whilst it is yet in your power. Behold this great and sinful nation, and in earnest weep over it. In this your day, at least, know the things which belong to your peace; lest the fatal sentence of Jerusalem should, too soon, be added," but now these

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