ture to say, that none other can have a sufficient efficacy for the general safety. And here no thought more readily occurs, than the necessity of endeavouring to curb that taste for luxury and pleasurable expence, which has done so much to enervate, disgrace, and impoverish us. One would imagine, that the degree to which our finances must necessarily have been exhausted during so long and expensive a war, should enforce a prudent frugality on all who have any regard for the public good. But instead of this, were we to judge from the glaring objects which every where strike us, a considerate man would be tempted to suspect, that the whole nation, if it acted on any scheme at all, was fallen into the unhappy artifice whereby so many particular persons have been undone; I mean, that of fancying a credit may be established among their neighbours, by making a gay figure, when there is least to support it. True prudence would certainly teach us, to endeavour to retrieve our affairs, while there is a possibility of doing it, by imposing on ourselves those sumptuary laws, if I may be allowed the expression, which the indulgence of our superiors spares us; that a vain parade, and an excessive delicacy in the articles of food and dress, of furniture and equipage, may not melt down our spirits, and increase our necessities; and so make us the more accessable to corruption, the more averse to those labours and dangers, which if we know not how resolutely to face, we shall in consequence of that be forced to meet, and perhaps the sooner when we turn our backs upon an enemy to avoid them. Permit me farther to observe, of how great importance it is, that a wise and steady care be taken in the education of youth, that they may be Trained up in the way in which they should go a care to form them betimes, to strenuous resolution and industry, to activity and self-denial, to reverence for laws and obedience to just and equitable government, and in a word, to every generous sentiment with regard to the public good and the liberty of their country; that they may take an honest pleasure and pride, if I may be permitted to say it, in sacrificing to that every personal interest which may seem to oppose it. The more elevated and distinguished the station of any one in question may be, the more important will these precautions be found, and the more solicitously should such princi ples be inculcated: But even in lower life this care is necessary; that if those whose prerogative it is to set the fashion should * Prov. xxii. 6. fail, as amidst their strong temptations they so generally do, all may not be carried away by the torrent. The like consideration calls us, to exert ourselves for the execution of those wholesome laws, which are enacted for the suppression of profaneness and vice, but which are so frequently violated, and audaciously insulted. Associations of worthy and public spirited men are in this view very desirable; especially for restraining that licentiousness, which if not carried into an army, is so frequently brought out of it, even where it has in the main been well disciplined; and which in civil life, to which disbanded soldiers must return, is pregnant with many grievous and fatal consequences. I might enlarge here; but these are hints of advice, easily suggested by one destitute of all religion, and which no prudent atheist would oppose or neglect. It becomes the servants of the living God, the ministers of the everlasting gospel, to lead your thoughts much farther on such an occasion: I must therefore add, VII. Let us all be engaged by the survey we have been taking, to repose ourselves on God, and to seek his protection and favour in the way he has graciously appointed. We well know him to be the great Disposer of all events, who Speaks at pleasure, with an efficacious voice, concerning a nation, as well as a family, to plant, or pluck up, to build or destroy it *. Our highest wisdom must therefore consist in securing his favour, by a most grateful reception of his gospel, and a faithful and constant compliance with its great and blessed design. And indeed it is, as the apostle insinuates, absolutely necessary, that virtue should be grafted on faith † in order to its flourishing. Permit me therefore this day, solemnly to renew the exhortation I have so often given you, that you submit to the authority of the word, and of the Son of God, and that you endeavour religiously to conform yourselves to the christian institution; acting as in the presence of that holy majesty of heaven, who registers all our actions, and penetrates our hearts; feeling at all times the deepest and most affectionate sense of your infinite obligations to redeeming grace; and considering yourselves as continually on the borders of an eternal state, where happiness or misery awaits you complete and perpetual. These are motives and considerations, suited to produce that consistency, that uniformity, that elevation of goodness, which must never be expected on any other foundation. cheer our hearts with the lovely and glorious prospect of that day of grand and final pacification, when, once for all, those who have been armed for the destruction of each other, Shall beat their swords into plow-shares, and their spears into pruninghooks, when nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more *, having so cordially learnt the gospel of peace. Glorious period, when the religion of Jesus shall universally prevail over the whole human race, and disarm their fierce passions, and regulate their exorbitant desires, and inspire the most benevolent and generous sentiments! When men shall regard their fellow-men of all nations as their brethren, and desire to see all around them as happy as themselves; forgetting, with a nobleness of heart which nothing but the gospel of Christ can inspire, every personal, yea I will add, every national interest, which appears inconsistent with the happiness of the whole human species! But Who shall live, when God doth this +? When this great miracle shall close the scene of wonders, which the christian revelation has opened? Probably a distant generation, by whom our names shall be forgotten, though the event itself be as certain as the divine oracles can render it. We will at least, with the first-fruits of a temper which shall then so universally prevail, rejoice in the expected happiness of those, who shall not so much as know that we ever existed. And if some regard to personal engagements will, as it is so natural and so just, mingle themselves with sentiments like these, let me on this good occasion call your thoughts to the much nearer and more important prospects of the eternal world; prospects, which I hope are familiar to the minds of many among us, and to which so many sad spectacles as daily present themselves here, concur to lead us. It is painful to a truly benevolent spirit, especially to one who considers the remoter consequences of things, to look round on what is generally the state of the present world, and to look back on the history of mankind in preceding times, ancient or modern. There is no branch of science, with respect to which it may be so truly said, He who increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow in proportion to it. In this respect, they seem to have the greatest advantage, who know only the story of their own personal and domestic afflictions, and those of a little circle of near neighbours. Yet so is our nature constituted, that we delight and wish to know, how it fares, and has fared with others, though at the expence * Isa. ii. 4. + Num. xxiv. 23. Eccl. i. 18. of a sad sympathy: But it is most comfortable to reflect, that where God has given such a sensibility of heart founded on true principles of piety and charity, he hath appointed, that the soul in which it dwells should not long inherit the infirmities and sorrows of human flesh, nor multiply years in the provinces of calamity and misery. He did not send those heaven-born graces down to earth, merely to teach men to weep the tears of humanity, though they have their intermingled sweetness too. Unfeigned universal love shall infallibly be the source of joy. Yet a little while, and God will draw a veil over all these mournful spectacles; or rather, he will raise us beyond the view of them, to a high and serene situation, from whence the penetrating eye shall command an ample prospect, beyond the present stretch even of thought, and nothing shall strike it but sights of bliss. In the mean time, let our eyes be lifted up towards heaven, in humble hope, and in fervent prayer, for the public prosperity, for the prevalency of true christianity in the whole world, especially in our own country; and above all, as it is that in which we are first and most intimately concerned, for its prevalency in our own hearts; that we may steadily retain it, that we may faithfully practise it, that we may daily advance in our conformity to it. So shall we understand the loving-kindness of the Lord, in the general conduct of present affairs; and though there may be mysteries of providence which we cannot particularly explain, shall assuredly believe, that all the paths of it are mercy and truth, and find the truest and the securest peace in our passage to everlasting joy. Amen. A HYMN SUNG AFTER THE SERMON. I. Now let our songs address the God of peace, The pointed spears to pruning-hooks he bends, II. Britain, adore the Guardian of thy state; When rebel-bands with desperate madness join'd, IV. He gave our fleets to triumph o'er the main, V. Fierce storms were summon'd up in Britain's aid, Contending powers congratulate the blessing, While we beneath our vines and fig-trees sit, Then spread thy peaceful word through every nation, |