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interesting occurrences, of modern times. What is the real character of these potentates, in respect to religion, cannot be determined by a public document of this kind. But that they wish to be considered by their respective subjects, and by the world, as the patrons of Christianity, there can be no doubt. To maintain this character, they will, at least, discountenance infidelity, and make provision, that their subjects may enjoy the advantages of religious instruction. In this way, kings do become nursing fathers to the church. In this way is the gospel honored in the view of men, its doctrines become more known, and its precepts more regarded. But, in this imperial covenant, there is not only an express and solemn recognition of Christianity in general; but its pacific principles are distinctly specified : The precepts of justice, of charity and peace.

Another consideration, well calculated to animate the friends of peace, is the unexpected success, with which, at the present day, God sees fit to crown almost every effort, made for purposes of benevolence or piety. Whether we contemplate societies, whose object is to employ missionaries, to distribute the Scriptures, or pamphlets of moral and religious tendency; whether we contemplate the education of heathen youth, either in their own countries, or in ours; or confine our views to Sunday and charity schools, we clearly perceive that the blessing of God surpasses the calculations of men: A little one becomes a thousand, and a small one a strong nation. There is a handful of corn in the earth, on the top of the mountains; the fruit thereof is seen to shake like Lebanon.

But since Christianity is itself a religion of peace, the very object which this society professes to have in view, is secured, so far as Christianity gains influence; why then, it may be asked, should societies be instituted distinctly for this purpose? I observe, in reply, it is doubtless true, that every genuine Christian does something towards effecting the design for which these societies are formed. We view every person of this description, as our friend and coadjutor. So is every Christian, acting in character, a friend to all benevolent institutions; but this does

not render the existence of such institutions unnecessary. Every Christian, acting in character, is a friend to humanity, to justice, and rational freedom, and therefore an enemy to the slave trade. But unless abolition societies had been formed, that most unrighteous traffic might have continued to the end of the world. Something was necessary to awaken sensibility, and to fix the public attention.

My hearers will have the goodness to remark, that we make no high pretensions. Knowing that our influence is neither weighty nor extensive, our claims and expectations are of a chastened and moderate kind. We are not, I hope, insensible that all our sufficiency is of God,-that we have no strength, nor wisdom, nor resolution, but what we derive from him. To him, therefore, we would daily address the poet's prayer, and

say,

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"From Thee is all that soothes the life of man,
His high endeavors, and his glad success,

His strength to suffer, and his will to serve."

This society and others, formed for the same object, both in this country and in Europe, may now be compared to light clouds, far distant from each other, and "no bigger than a man's hand." It is for divine wisdom to determine, whether these clouds shall be speedily attenuated and dissolved; or whether they shall be thickened and enlarged, and, uniting with others, yet to be formed in the intermediate spaces, shall cover all the heavens, and shall distil "the dew of Hermon; the dew that descended on the mountains of Zion.”

SERMON XIII.

TRUE SOURCES OF NATIONAL PROSPERITY.*

ISAIAH, 33: 6.-Wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of thy times, and strength of salvation; The fear of the Lord is his treas

ure.

THIS chapter begins with an elegant apostrophe to Sennacherib, king of Assyria, reproaching him as the ambitious and unprovoked disturber of the peace of nations. The prophet next makes a devout address to Jehovah, expressing confidence in the divine government, and hope of the delivery and security of his people, notwithstanding the menaces of an insolent and imperious adversary.

The text is thought to be directed to Hezekiah, then the monarch of Judah, and is thus rendered by Bishop Lowth:

Wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of thy times; the possession of continued salvation; the fear of Jehovah, this shall be thy treasure.

The terms, wisdom and fear of God, as frequently used in Scripture, are synonymous. The fear of the Lord, that is wisdom. But, as both occur in our text, it is rational to conclude, that by the latter, is signified an ability to accomplish desirable ends, by a judicious choice and arrangement of means. This ability, though often found in connexion with knowledge and piety, is not to be confounded with either. The fear of God directs men to aim at the purest and noblest ends. For the accomplishment of these, wisdom makes a selection from those various means, which knowledge has provided.

* Preached at the Annual Election, Mass. May, 1814.

The doctrine inculcated by our text is, therefore, that the permanent prosperity of a nation is best secured by a union of knowledge, wisdom, and the fear of God.

After having endeavored to illustrate this proposition, we shall consider, in what way these qualities can be most effectually promoted.

To elucidate the proposition, we observe, first, that by science, a nation is enabled to profit by the advantages of its natural situation. It avails little, that the soil of a country is rich, if the art of cultivation is unknown to the inhabitants. It avails nothing, that her shores are capable of being connected with every climate, through the medium of intervening seas or oceans, while science has never taught the construction of vessels, nor the art of directing them. Without this knowledge, there is comparatively little use in the rivers, by which a country is intersected; nor can the advantages of them be fully realized, till all vincible obstacles to navigation are actually overcome, and neighboring streams are made to unite their waters.

The fearful train of disorders, which makes such extensive and perpetual devastation on the happiness and life of man, is found capable of being arrested or enfeebled by the use of those mineral or vegetable substances, which the liberality of nature produces; but of which it is the province of science to discover the virtues, and the just application. It is in vain, that remedies are provided for human sufferings, or sustenance for human life, while the plants or minerals, which contain them, are permitted to remain undistinguished in the bosom of the forest, or buried beneath the surface of the earth. How inexpressibly might the sum of human misery have been lessened, had the science of medicine, among all the nations of antiquity, been advanced to its present state! What enormous waste of life has been annually made for many centuries, by a disorder, the easy prevention of which is matter of recent discovery! The sciences of chemistry and mineralogy, lately introduced into our country, and now cultivated with so much ardor and success, cannot fail, by their influence on medicine, agriculture and the arts, to pro

duce consequences of great national importance. The nature of man on the one side, and of soils and climates on the other, remains the same in every age. It is knowledge-it is cultivation that produces the change. To this are we to ascribe it, that in our own country, where, two centuries ago, wild beasts and savages were contending for the empire of an unmeasured desert, there are now civil institutions, commerce, cities, arts, letters, religion, and all the charities of social and domestic life.

Secondly-in wisdom and knowledge is implied a right understanding of the nature and design of civil society. A community possessing these qualities, will consider government as a benevolent institution, resulting from the social nature of man, and conducive not less to his liberty, than to his security. They will adopt a form of government, not only good in itself, but adapted to the local and relative situation of their country, and to their own genius and character. Whatever constitution may be preferred, they will never accede to the doctrine, that the people were made for their rulers; but will rather consider the latter as the honored depositaries of power, originally inherent in the people, and voluntarily relinquished by them, on condition of its being used for their benefit. They will, by consequence, believe themselves in possession of a right, either to resume the power, or else to demand the accomplishment of the conditions, on which it was conferred.

Thirdly-whatever civil compact they may see fit to adopt, an enlightened people will not trust themselves to calculate, with minuteness and confidence, the greatest degree of political prosperity that may be enjoyed, nor the least degree of restraint that may be necessary. It will not escape them, that no human foresight can extend to all emergencies, which a series of years may produce; and that time may develope, in any political constitution, traits, either more or less valuable, than were apparent to its original authors. It is a well known truth in mechanics, that the actual and theoretical powers of a machine will never coincide. Through the flexibility of one part, the rigidity of another, and the roughness of a third, the result may disappoint

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