its soil. It was a goodly land, a land flowing with milk and honey. Such also is the land which God hath given to our fathers and unto us. It partakes of whatever is excellent, both with respect to soil and climate. Its surface, like Judea, is beautifully variegated with hills and vallies, watered with numerous rivers fertilizing as Jordan, and in point of luxuriance and capability of culture it is not inferior to the so much celebrated Canaan of the east,

All the vegetable productions of Europe flourish in some parts of the United States. Here the labours of the husbandman are richly rewarded. The fields now bend beneath their annual tribute, The very cottage overflows with plenty, and the peasant's board is covered with variety.

From our grannaries the islands of the sea are supplied; by qur harvests the hungry of many nations are fed.

The land which the Israelites inherited was not only good, but large, including the places of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hevites, and the Jebusites. So is united America large, extending from the Atlantic to the Missisippi; from the Irroquois to the St. Mary's. A territory greater in extent than Britain, Ireland, France, Portugal, Spain, Germany, Holland, Italy, European Turkey, Hungary, Bohemia, Switzerland and Lithuania. Thousands of townships have been peopled, and millions of acres cleared, since the revolution, Multitudes are still penetrating the

regions o the west, and converting the forest into the fruitful field, and yet there is room-room for our own increasing population, and also for the numerous emigrants flocking hither from distant nations.

Was the land of Judea divided amongst its inhabitants? So in this favored country-the cultivator is the proprietor of the soil. "No usurping despot here fixes his standard and awes Americans into a state of vassalage. No haughty nobility engrosses the soil, and reduces the people to the necessity of starving or submitting to the drudgery of slaves." No; " each man is his own master, walks on his own ground,"* tills his own field, eats the fruit of his own labour, and rests beneath the shade of his own fig-tree,

Did the Israelites enjoy, in the land whither they were brought, the inestimable privilege of worshipping God according to the dictates of their con sciences and the precepts of his word? So do Ameri

cans,

In defence of religious liberty many of our ancestors suffered martyrdom. In pursuit of this they left their native country, and fled to the wilderness, where after many struggles they obtained it.

In these United States no civil code binds the conscience; no assuming pontiff dictates to us our faith. Happy, thrice happy land, where religion

Maxcy's Oration.

stands upon its own basis, where truth is vindicated by its own weapons, and conquers by its own evidence. Here light without a veil emanates from the sun of righteousness, and salvation, without a mixture, flows pure and unrestrained from its sacred source the gospel.

Such is our situation, and such our privilege. "This is indeed the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes."

Is our present situation marvellous? It will appear more so, if we consider the means by which we have been exalted to it.

The manner in which these colonies have been preserved from savage barbarity, from French usurpation, and finally delivered from British tyranny, is little less than miraculous.

While it was in the power of the natives to have swallowed us up, they were mercifully restrained: afterwards, when they attempted it, they were delivered into our hand.

Against the French, God fought for America. In this warfare he enlisted the elements, marshalled the thunder, and commissioned the pestilence.

The fleet which was fitted out in 1746, at vast expence, for the sanguinary purpose of conquering Nova Scotia, destroying Boston, and ravaging the whole extent of our defenceless coasts, was providentially defeated in its object. After this mighty armament was ready to put to sea, it was shut up for weeks

in the ports of France, by an embargo from heaven. When crossing the Atlantic, its ships were so tossed by the waves and shattered by the tempests, that like the chariots of Pharaoh, when the Lord looked upon them through the pillar of fire, they moved heavi ly. A part only of this fleet ever reached our shores. The admiral, to whom this work of death was committed, disheartened by those disasters, fell into an apoplexy, or drank poison and died. The second in command, struck with sudden terror from the Almighty, put an end to his own life. The third accomplished a landing at Chebucto. But no sooner had he pitched his camp than the Angel of the Lord smote it with pestilence, and it became, like the camp of Assyria, futi of dead men. Thus the Almighty laid his veto upon their arms, and compelled them to return by the way they came, without so much as lifting a spear or shooting an arrow against the cities they were destined to destroy. Our fathers stood still and saw the salvation of God.*

The same providential care was extended to these colonies during the revolutionary war.

An event so great as the dismemberment of this country from Britain, was not to be accomplished without struggles and contests. The issue was awfully dubious. Human probability declared against the attempt. The decree, however, was passed in

For a more particular account of these disasters, see Trumbull'shistory of the last century.

heaven. In the eighteenth century, America was to shake off the yoke and become free and independent; and already had God prepared the instrument by which this was to be accomplished. Was Moses formed to rescue ancient Israel from bondage? So was Washington, to rescue this western and modern Israel of the Lord.

The glory of furnishing protectors belongs to God; and who does not see his wisdom and goodness in raising such a character at such a crisis? His equal had not existed for ages, and probably will not for ages to come. like the celebrated leader of Israel, he was great in the sight of all his people and all their enemies. Great with respect to the energies of his mind, the resources of his genius, and great with respect to that divine efficacy which stamped victory on his arms, and crowned his exertions with success.

He was providentially fitted for the part he was called to act, and providentially introduced upon the theatre of action.

"His education was such as favored the production of a sound mind and a vigorous body."* The early habits of his youth prepared him to endure the toils and fatigues of after life.

The part he acted when the unfortunate Braddock fell, brought his character into view, made him known to his country, and was justly considered as a presage of his future greatness.† Thus God prepared his ser

† See Davies' sermon, delivered soon after Braddock's defeat