vi.

SERMON in their industry, sobriety, justice, and regular attention to the duties of their several stations. Such virtues are the sinews and strength of the state; they are the supports of its prosperity at home, and of its reputation abroad; while luxury, corruption, venality, and idleness, unnerve the public vigour, disgrace the public character, and pave the way to general ruin. Every vice, however fashionable, that becomes prevalent, is the infusion of so much poison into the public cup; and in proportion to the degree of its prevalence, will the health and strength of the nation be impaired. Few of us by our arms, and fewer still by our counsels, can have influence in promoting that welfare of our country which all profess to desire. But there is one sphere in which all of us can act as benefactors to it; by setting a good example, each in his own line, and performing a worthy and honourable part. Righteousness will ever exalt a nation; and wickedness will be, first, the reproach, and then the ruin of every people.

Ainong those virtues to which the love of our country calls us, let us not forget piety to God. Without a proper sense of religion,

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religion, and a due acknowledgment of that SERMON Supreme Power which rules among the kingdoms, no nation was ever found to prosper long. Let those sophistical reasoners, who would teach us that philosophy ought now to supersede the antient prejudices of Religion, look to the history of those republics which they so highly admire, especially to the history of the Romans. They will there find, that, during the freest and most flourishing periods of the republic, the Romans were the most religious of all nations. The Senate at no time assembled, no consul entered on his office, no great public measure was ever undertaken, without previous religious services, without prayers and sacrifice. After every victory, solemn thanksgivings were offered to the gods; and upon any defeat that was sustained, public humiliations and processions were decreed, in order to deprecate the displeasure of Heaven. That much superstition and folly entered into what they called religion, will be readily admitted; but still but still it implied reverence to a Supreme Power in Heaven, which ruled all the affairs of men, and was cn

SERMON titled to their homage. Hence that sacred

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respect to an, oath, as an inviolable obligation, which long distinguished the Romans, and historians have remarked, that when the reverence for an oath began to be diminished, and the loose epicurean system which discarded the belief of Providence to be introduced, the Roman honour and prosperity from that period began to decline. These are things that belong to our admonition, on whom the ends of the world are come.

In the second place, as we would show our love to our country, let us join to the virtues of private men, those which belong to us in a political capacity as subjects and citizens. These must appear in loyalty to our sovereign, in submission to the autho rity of rulers and magistrates, and in readiness to support the measures that are taken for public welfare and defence. Without regard to such duties as these, it is evident, not only that the state cannot flourish, but even that it cannot subsist. Accordingly they are strongly bound upon us by the authority of Scripture. Let every

soul

1

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soul be subject to the higher powers; who- SERMON ever resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God. For rulers are not a terrour to good works, but to the evil. Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience'-sake*. Such passages as these, there is little danger of our misunderstanding at present, as if they enjoined a slavish submission to authority in things. unlawful. This is by no means the extreme to which the spirit of the times points, or to which the nature of our civil constitution leads. The full opportunity that is given for the voice of the people being at all times heard, the freedom of discussion on all political matters that is allowed both in discourse and writing, is a sufficient guard against all approaches to unwarrantable stretches of power in the ruler, and to unlimited submission in the subject.

But while we duly value this high advantage of the liberty of the press and the freedom of political discussion, and when we behold it perpetually acting as a censorial check on all who are in power, let us

SERMON beware, lest, abusing our liberty, we suffer

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it to degenerate into licentiousness. The multitude, we well know, are always prone to find fault with those who are set over them, and to arraign their conduct; and too often this spirit appears when public dangers ought to silence the voice of discontent, and to unite every heart and hand in the common cause.-The management of a great empire, especially in difficult times, is the conduct of an unwieldy and intricate machine, in directing the movements of which, where is the hand so steady as never to err? Instead of the violent censures which the giddy and presumptuous are so ready to pour forth, moderation in discussing matters of which they are very incompetent judges, would be much more wise and becoming. The art of government and legislation is undoubtedly the most nice and difficult of all the arts in which the human mind can be engaged; and where the greatest preparation of knowledge, experience, and ability are absolutely requisite to qualify men for the task. But in times when legislation is considered as a trade which every man is qualified to

take