welfare of that country which has been the mother, the nurse, the guardian of us all? Can we think, without horror, of foreign invasion laying waste our fruitful and smiling fields, or of lawless anarchy and tumultuary mobs attacking our peaceful habitations? -No! Peace be within thy walls, and prosperity within thy palaces, will ever be the earnest prayer of every virtuous man; for my brethren and companions' sake, I will ever say, Peace be within thee!

II. We love our country as the seat of true religion. Freed from the dominion of popish superstition and darkness which so long overspread the earth, here the light of the blessed Reformation continues to shine in its greatest splendour. Here the forms of religious worship are encumbered with no pageantry of vain rites; but, agreeably to God's word, are plain and simple, yet solemn and venerable. Religion has among us neither been the engine of ecclesiastical tyranny, nor the instrument of princely despotism. It has maintained a proper alliance with the regular government of the state, and the order of public tranquillity. The church that has been established by law, in the two separate divisions of the island is suited to the genius and dispositions of the people in each. While to the established church is given that protection and support from government, which both the interests of religion and the welfare of the state render proper and due; yet no rigid conformity to it is exacted. All persecution for conscience-sake is unknown. They who, in their modes of thinking, or in their religious forms, differ from the established church, are at full liberty, without reproach, to worship God according to their own opinions and

the rites of their fathers, as long as they infringe not the public tranquillity nor disturb the state.

I now ask, what establishment of religion more friendly to public happiness could be desired or framed? How zealous ought we to be for its preservation? How much on our guard against every danger which threatens to trouble or overthrow it? -Can there be any among us so infatuated as to wish to exchange it for that new form of things which has produced such fatal effects on a neighbouring land? Were it ever to be introduced among us, it is not the return of ancient superstition, it is not the bondage of the church of Rome, we would have to dread: evils great in themselves, but small in comparison of what such a revolution would produce. As soon as under the guise of philosophy, and with the pretence of unlimited toleration, the established forms of religion were demolished in France, the flood-gates were opened to pour a torrent of avowed infidelity, atheism, and all the grossest immoralities over that devoted country. We have beheld the throne and the altar overthrown together: and nothing but a wretched ruin left, where once a stately fabric stood. We have seen the venerable ministers of religion stripped of their subsistence, torn from their churches, driven from their homes, and forced to wander as exiles, and beg their bread in a foreign land. We have seen the last consolation of the wretched destroyed, and the grave sealed against their hope, by the public declaration that death is an eternal sleep.. Such have been the

blessed fruits of that new order of things which boasted of being to restore happiness to all the nations. Such are the consequences we have to

expect among ourselves, if ever the like dangerous opinions shall prevail in Britain. us turn away from the thought.

With horror let With earnestness

let us pray for the peace of our Jerusalem; and for the house of the Lord our God, let us zealously seek its good.

III. We love our country as the seat of liberty and laws; a mild, wise, and happy government. This opens a much wider field of discourse than the bounds of a sermon admit. But on this part of the subject being happily anticipated by so many excellent publications which have lately appeared, I shall content myself with making a few leading observations. The ends for which men unite in society and submit to government are, to enjoy security to their property, and freedom to their persons from all injustice or violence. The more completely those ends are obtained, with the least diminution of personal liberty, the nearer such government approaches to perfection; I say, approaches to it; for a perfect government is a mere chimera. Before we can expect it to take place, we must wait till we see any one thing whatever arrive at perfection on earth. The two extremes to be guarded against are, despotism, where all are slaves; and anarchy, where all would rule, and none obey.

The British government may appear at different periods to have inclined sometimes to the one, and sometimes to the other of those extremes. In its present state, it may justly be accounted to be removed to an equal distance from either of those evils; and therefore to have approached nearer to the perfection of social order, than any other govern

ment, ancient or modern. To this point it has arrived in the progress of ages, not in consequence of theories formed by speculative men, such as our modern reformers, but in consequence of experiments made, and trials undergone. Experience, that great parent of all, but especially of political wisdom, taught a brave, generous, and high-spirited people, how to correct, by degrees, preceding evils, and to form the wisest plan for liberty and security. In this state we now find the British constitution. It stands among the nations of the earth, like an ancient oak in the wood, which, after having overcome many a blast, overtops the other trees of the forest, and commands respect and veneration. All foreigners look to it with wonder, and with envy, as the happiest system that ever was devised for uniting dignity in the magistrate and liberty in the subject, with protection and security to all. Justly may we challenge those who attempt to criticise it, to produce, from the annals of history, any example of such a multitude of men as the British subjects, held together in the bonds of civil society, under so few restraints, and with such full enjoyment of freedom as we possess: blessed too for a whole century past with a succession of princes, who made the laws of the land the rule of their government; blessed now with a sovereign at the head of the empire, to whom faction itself cannot impute, throughout his long reign, any acts of tyranny, cruelty, or oppression; whose personal virtues and whose domestic conduct hold forth to the nation such a high example of piety, decency, and good order, as, if generally followed, would render all his subjects happy.

In opposition to such sentiments as I have now

delivered in favour of the constitution of our country, we are called upon, by a certain set of men, to look to a republic, as the glory of all governments. There, we are told, every man comes forth to act his part with vigour; and by the exertion of his talents, has opportunities of rising to the highest distinction and power. In reply to this, let it be observed, first, that there are no advantages claimed by a republic, but what under the British constitution are enjoyed to the full. On the exertion of any laudable and honourable talent whatever, no restraint is laid; no odious distinctions take place between the nobility and the people; no severe exclusive privileges are possessed by the former to the prejudice of the latter; but merit in every rank has the freest scope, and examples abound of persons rising by their talents from ordinary rank and humble birth to high distinction in the state.

But next, it may be boldly asserted, that of all the forms of government which have been established on the earth, the republican is attended with the greatest disadvantages to those who live under it. In a small state, where the people resemble the inhabitants of one family, the management of their concerns can more safely be carried on by their own joint councils, without any supreme magistrate. But if But if government be extended over a large territory, and over numerous inhabitants of different orders and fortunes, it has ever been found impossible to preserve any wellregulated balance of power under a republican constitution. It has ever been, and never can be, any other, than a perpetual contest between oligarchy and democracy; between the rich and the poor; between a few popular leaders who aspire to the