rise to this time, the influence of Divine Providence may be clearly perceived in many signal instances, of which we mention but a few.

“In revealing the councils of our enemies, when the discoveries were seasonable and important, and the means seemingly inadequate or fortuitous; in preserving and even improving the union of the several States, on the breach of which our enemies place their greatest dependence; in increasing the number and adding to the zeal and attachment of the friends of liberty; in granting remarkable deliverances, and blessing us with the most signal success when affairs seemed to have the most discouraging appearance; in raising up for us a powerful and generous ally in one of the first of the European powers; in confounding the councils of our enemies, and suffering them to pursue such measures as have most directly contributed to frustrate their own desires and expectations; above all, in making their extreme cruelty to the inhabitants of these States when in their power, and their savage devastation of property, the very means of cementing our union, and adding vigor to every effort in opposition to them.

“And as we cannot help leading the good people of these States to a retrospect of the events which have taken place since the beginning of the war, so we recommend in a particular manner to their observation, the goodness of God in the year now drawing to a conclusion; in which the confederation of the United States has been completed; in which there has been so many instances of prowess and success in our armies, particularly in the Southern States, where, notwithstanding the difficulties with which they had to struggle, they have recovered the whole country which the enemy had overrun, leaving them only a post or two on or near the sea; in which we have been so powerfully and effectually assisted by our allies, while in all the conjunct operations the most perfect harmony has subsisted in the allied army; in which there has been so plentiful a harvest and so great abundance of the fruits of the earth of every kind, as not only enables us easily to supply the wants of our army, but gives comfort and happiness to the whole people; and, in which, after the success of our allies by sea, a general of the first rank, with his whole army, has been captured by the allied forces under the direction of our Commander-in-Chief.

"It is therefore recommended to the several States to set

apart the 13th day of December next, to be religiously observed as a day of thanksgiving and prayer; that all the people may assemble on that day, with grateful hearts, to celebrate the praises of our Gracious Benefactor; to confess our manifold sins; to offer up our most fervent supplications to the God of all grace, that it may please Him to pardon our offences, and incline our hearts for the future to keep all his laws; to comfort and relieve all our brethren who are in distress or captivity; to prosper our husbandmen, and give success to all engaged in lawful commerce; to impart wisdom and integrity to our counsellors, judgment and fortitude to our officers and soldiers; to protect and prosper our illustrious ally, and favor our united exertions for the speedy establishment of a safe, honorable and lasting peace; to bless all seminaries of learning, and cause the knowledge of God to cover the earth, as the waters cover the seas."

It is refreshing to the Christian patriot to find such sentiments avowed so fully and cordially by the fathers of our Republic in their public acts and proceedings. They had no relish for that diluted and meagre Christianity which is too nearly allied to a refined Paganism; but they speak out the truths of the Bible, and in the language of the Bible, as men who believed in them and gloried in them.

NOTE B.-LECTURE 2. p. 59.

I refer to Alison. In the introduction to his History of Europe, having spoken of the overthrow of the Roman Empire, he proceeds to say:

"But the conquests of the Northern nations led to one important consequence-the establishment of representative governments in the provinces of the empire. The liberty of antiquity cradled in single cities, was confined to the citizens who were present on the spot, and could take an active part in the publio deliberations. Though the Romans, with unexampled wisdom, 10

extended the rights of citizenship to the conquered provinces, yet the idea of admitting them to a share of the representation never occurred to their minds; and the more important privileges of a citizen could only be exercised by actually repairing to the metropolis. The unavoidable consequence of this was, that the populace of the capital, in all the free states of antiquity, exercised the principal powers of government; from their passions the public measures took their rise, and by their tumults revolutions in the state were effected. Hence the violence, the anarchy, and the inconstancy by which their history was so often distinguished, and which, though concealed amid the blaze of ancient eloquence, the searching eye of modern history has so fully illustrated.

*

"The northern nations on the other hand, who established themselves on the ruins of the Roman Empire, were actuated by different feelings and influenced by opposite habits. The liberty which they brought with them from their woods, or which had sprung up amidst the independence of the desert, knew no locality, and was confined to no district. The whole nation was originally free, and that freedom was equally preserved and valued in the cultivated plain as in the desert wilds. * * It was the discovery of rich and cultivated districts, tenanted by a skilful but unwarlike people, which encouraged the rural settlement of the conquerors, which rendered the protection of cities unnecessary and provided a counterpoise to their allurements; and by establishing the invaders in a permanent manner in the country, long preserved their manners from corruption, and rendered the servitude of the Roman Empire one remote cause of the liberty of modern Europe.

"On the first settlement of the victorious nations, the popular assemblies of the soldiers were an actual convocation of the military array of the kingdoms. William the Conqueror summoned his whole military followers to assemble at Winchester, and sixty thousand men obeyed the mandate, the poorest of whom held property adequate to the maintenance of a horseman and his attendants. The meetings of the Champs-de-Mai were less a deputation from the followers of Clovis, than an actual congregation of their numbers in one vast assembly. But, in process of time, the burden of travelling from a distance was severely felt, and the prevalence of sedentary habits rendered the landed proprietors unwilling to undertake the risk or expense of personal attendance on the great council of the state. Hence the introduc

tion of Parliaments or Representative Legislatures, the greatest addition to the cause of liberty which modern times has afforded; which combine the energy of a democratic with the caution of an aristocratic government; which temper the turbulence and allay the fervor of cities by the slowness and tenacity of country life, and which, when the balance is duly preserved in the composition of the assembly, provide in the variety of its interests and habits, a permanent check upon the violence or injustice of a part of its members.

"It is doubtful, however, whether these causes, powerful as they are, would have led to the introduction of that great and hitherto unknown change in government which the representative system introduced, had not a model existed for imitation, in which for a series of ages, it had been fully established. The councils of the church had so early as the sixth century introduced over all christendom the most perfect system of representation. Delegates from the most remote dioceses in Europe and Asia had there assembled to deliberate on the concerns of the faithful, and every Christian priest, in the humblest station, had some share in the formation of those great assemblies, by whom the general affairs of the church were to be regulated. The formation of parliaments, under the representative system, took place in all the European States in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The industry of antiquarians may carry the Wittenagemot or actual Assembly of leading men a few generations further back; but six centuries before, the Councils of Nice and Antioch had exhibited perfect models of an universal system of representation, embracing a wider sphere than the whole extent of the Roman Empire. There can be no doubt that it was this example, so generally known, and of such powerful authority, which determined the imitation of the other members of the community, where they had any common concerns which required deliberation, and thus to the other blessings which civilization owes to Christianity are to be added those inestimable advantages which have flowed from the establishment of the representative system."

Brougham, in his valuable work entitled "Political Philosophy," claims "the representative principle as the great invention of modern times;" but admits that the "Commonwealths of antiquity made so near an approach to

it, as leaves us in some wonder how they never should have made that important step in the art of government." He refers to the Republics of Greece and others, in which the choice of rulers was often submitted to the blind hazard of the lot, and not to the intelligent and deliberate action of the people. Had he turned to the Commonwealth of the Hebrews, he might have there found everything that he has defined as essential to Representation. It is not a little strange that such men as Alison, Brougham and others, in their extensive researches on such subjects, should so entirely overlook what is contained in the Bible respecting the great principles which enter into the constitution of civil government.

NOTE C.-LECTURE 2, p. 59

From the various Commentaries which show how the in Exodus and Deuteronomy are to be reconciled, I will quote the Exposition by Graves, cited in the Comprehensive Commentary. He observes, on the narrative in Deuteronomy:

"There is a great and striking difference betwixt this statement and that of Exodus, 18: 17-22, but no contradiction. Jethro suggested to Moses the appointment. He, probably after consulting God, as Jethro intimates-If God shall command thee so,' Exodus, 18:23, referred the matter to the people, and assigned the choice of the individuals to them; the persons thus selected he admitted to share his authority, as subordinate judges. Thus the two statements are perfectly consistent. But this is not all their difference is most natural. In first recording the event, it was natural for Moses to dwell on the first cause which led to it, and pass by the appeal to the people as a subor