vänt, and at length when matured by age, and furnished with experience, a vast scene opened before him, where all his talents might be displayed, and all his energies exerted..

Already was America invaded. The roar of British cannon was heard from our harbors, and a martial band was parading on our shores. Every thing was in jeopardy. A secret sigh now escaped from the patriot's bosom.* The sage worn out with toils and bending upon his staff shook his hoary locks and said, "my sons your cause is good, I wish you success, but I fear your undisciplined valour will be overcome in the unequal contest." The hearts of many fainted within them, and many said, "Who is able to go up and fight against this people? for they be mightier than we." At this eventful period the guardians of our liberty looked round with trembling hopes, to find a man who was able to bear his country's shield and who might be trusted to wield her sword. Every eye fixed on Washington. The exploits of his youth now rose in grateful recollection. Their choice was unanimous, and the event proved that it was decided by Heaven. He obeyed the mandate of his country, submitted himself to her disposal, and looking up to God for guidance and protection, went forth and stood in the very front of her dangers. Awful was his responsibility-immense

* See Ramsay's account of the doubts entertained in 1775, by many of the truest friends of America, concerning the war with Britain.

I.

apply to American Israel the sentiment of my text? Who is the author of these mercies? and whence hath this salvation come? Who preserved your fathers from the tomahawk of the savage,and yourselves from the vengeance of Britain? Who raised up Washington to fight your battles and preside over your councils? councils? Who hath driven out the heathen before you, and set your feet in a broad place? Who hath established your independence on a sure foundation, and given you peace from all your enemies round about? Who hath done all this, yea more than this, who hath shed upon you the light of celestial day, and disclosed to your view the realities of the world to come ?

Manifestly the Lord God of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel.

This is God's kindness to his people. Your fathers leaned on God's promises, and walked in the sunshine of his word. And now while they rest from their labors, we their children are reaping the fruits of their piety and receiving the answer to their prayers.

Do you enquire how you may still prosper, and in what way your inheritance may be rendered permanent and secure? I answer, "Believe in the Lord your God, so shall ye be established; believe in his prophets so shall ye prosper." Is God the author of your independence? Has he established you in this land of plenty and of peace? Then have you nothing to seek but his favor; nothing to dread but his dis

pleasure. Walk then before him and be ye perfect. Let your conversation be such as becometh godliness. Adorn the doctrine of God our savior.

Attend to the education of your children as a matter of the first importance. If you wish them to be governed by motives, and not by stripes; as free men and not as slaves; you must be at pains to furnish their minds with necessary knowledge, especially with the knowledge of religion. You may leave them liberty; but it is a blessing which they cannot long enjoy, unless their understandings are enlightened by science, and their hearts sanctified by grace.

Imitate then the example of your pious ancestors; nurture your sons and your daughters in piety; train up your household in the admonition of the Lord. Early teach them subordination. Let their habits of thinking and acting be formed, not from the camelion pages of a newspaper, whose morality is the interest of a party, and whose precepts change with the result of an election; but from the oracles of God. These teach the truest politics; these the purest morals. Hence let them learn to pay tribute cheerfully unto Casar, and that to speak evil unjustly of the ruler of God's people is sin.

Guard them against, and guard yourselves against visionary notions of government, founded on mistaken ideas of human nature. Consider that man an enemy who endeavours to make you believe mankind are not depraved, when God and conscience both

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 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 our 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 ances tors 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.