nation the abject minions of superstition; or, when this foreign yoke was removed, subjected to such an excess of power, as long endangered our legal government. And what relieved us from these miseries and dangers, but the patriotic spirit of ourcountrymen, and their generous concern for the welfare and se-: curity of present and future ages? this topic enlarged on. What praise and veneration are due to those who obtained for us such blessings! And let it not be imagined that this merit is confined to the great: every Briton may deserve well of his country this, shown. Nor is it only in times of confusion that our public conduct is important; in quiet times this virtue assumes a more amiable form this shown, and enlarged on. : The good effects of public virtue are often remote, always uncertain; and these considerations make it the more difficult, and the more meritorious: this fully shown. But whatever inward pleasure the true patriot may enjoy, without he is usually surrounded by dangers and miseries, when he opposes authority, established by long usage, or usurped by. strong hands this enlarged on, and applied to the patriots of, our Reformation and Revolution. It is not indeed the lot of every man who loves his country to be exposed to these extreme perils; but some dangers and discouragements always attend the practice of this virtue and he, who is obliged to interfere in public divisions, must be very fortunate, if his sentiments always coincide with his interest; or very generous, if he never pursues his interests against his sentiments. But they are not only real interests, which are opposed to the love of our country; many imaginary ones range themselves on the same side and he, who steadily persists in his duty to the public, is not much governed by avarice or ambition, pride or resentment. Such, and so important being the love of our country, it may seem very hard that it meets not usually the approbation bestowed on many inferior virtues : reasons intimated of this: but this very contempt ought to raise it still higher in our esteem : reasons assigned. Danger, which the nation ran, from a set of hypocrites in the reign of Charles II. dilated on. Sort of men described, who maintain that this boasted virtue is but an empty name, and that a wise man should look to himself alone, as unconnected with the public: false doctrine founded on as false a fact, &c. Let us turn our thoughts from such men to as noble a spectacle as the world can afford; a true lover of his country, who subjects himself to reproach and misery for the sake of its essential interests, &c. or let us contemplate one acting in a lower sphere, and performing with integrity all those trusts, which the state, or any less society, has entrusted to him. The great Father of nature cannot but be favorable to views so benignant, directed to the advantage of his creatures: it would be ingratitude not to ascribe to this the two signal preservations of our country, which gave occasion to this discourse : this topic enlarged on to the end. DISCOURSE XVII. ON PUBLIC VIRTUE. [Preached before the University, Nov. 5, 1765.] 1 PETER, CHAP. II.-VERSE 17. Love the brotherhood. LOVE to each other is the characteristic by which our Saviour tells us his disciples are to be distinguished; and we find, through the whole New Testament, that the converts to his religion were constantly exhorted to treat all men with decency and respect, but to love their brethren.' Their agreement in the same faith, their obedience to the same Master; their common interest, their common sufferings, their want of mutual assistance, to lighten those sufferings, to strengthen that interest, to confirm each other in faith and obedience, were all strong cords of affection to their fellow Christians. Had they been farther separated from the heathen world, and united under one civil government, and had that government been constituted on such principles of liberty, that all or many of them might have had some influence in it, some power of promoting the general welfare,-these would have been additional bonds of love; and the peculiar regard, which they were taught to show to their fellow Christians, had then been directed to their fellow citizens. We might then have expected to find in the writings of the apostles as warm exhortations to love our country, as high praises of public virtue, as in any Greek panegyrist, or among the boasts of the arrogant Roman. It is agreeable to nature and reason, that we should cultivate in ourselves those affections which we are able to gratify. We love them most who are nearest to us, to whom it is in our power to do the greatest good; our families, relations, friends. They too, who are associated with us under the same government, are placed within the reach of our beneficence; our affections correspond to our powers, and we love our countrymen: but the apostles were too well acquainted with the human mind, to recommend such affections as the condition of their disciples would not suffer them to exercise, and to preach to slaves of public virtue. Our situation is in this respect much happier than that of the first Christians; and when we read in the Scriptures this precept, Love your brethren,' we may well understand it, Love your country.' For though we may wish happiness to the whole Christian world, yet, towards the greatest part of it, it can be but a fruitless wish, which the sense of its inefficacy must render cold and languid: but our stations enable, and our obligations require us, to labor and contend for the prosperity of our country, and for the common good of all who are united with us in the same civil and religious societies. Permit me therefore to bring to your thoughts some of the praises due to this virtue, whilst we are commemorating events which will supply abundant proofs of its usefulness and excellence. It has been sometimes said, that in the present age, distinguished by many private virtues, the love of our country is no more. Perhaps the complaint has no other origin, than that the sharper trials of it are taken away: but this, which conceals it from the careless observer, discovers to men of more attention that it every where abounds. Persecution, oppression, and severity, are banished, either by the wisdom of our laws or the mildness of our manners; humanity and civility are spread through the land; the love of liberty, which, among Britons, is closely connected with the love of their country, watches, with a jealous eye, the most minute deviations from the rules of our excellent constitution, and promises to transmit it unimpaired to our posterity. We owe it to the virtues of our ancestors; and, as long as we retain those virtues, we shall preserve it for our children. The importance of them to the public happiness will fully appear, if we look back some ages, and behold the English nation the most abject minions of superstition; tamely yielding to a usurped authority what no lawful governor can claim, the dominion of their minds; drudging under the burden of penances, or bribing the infallible church with that substance, which should have been the support of their families, and the blessing of their posterity: even, in a literal sense, performing that hideous expiation, by which men gave the fruit of their bodies for the sin of their souls; inasmuch as they devoted their sons and daughters to cells and solitudes, where they became unhappy in themselves and useless to the world. Or, if we bring our thoughts lower down, we shall perceive that the removal of this foreign yoke, on which, in the contests between the king and people, the balance had often hung, gave our monarchs such an excess of power, as long threatened a change of our legal government for perfect despotism. And what relieved us from these miseries and these dangers, but the patriot spirit of our countrymen, their generous concern for the common good, for the security of the present and future ages? Had not the reformers of religion, influenced by a sense of their duty to God and man, resolved to deliver out of darkness and error their deluded brethren, we might now perhaps have been groaning under the tyranny of an inquisition. Had not the danger of losing the established religion and laws animated some of the last age with a zeal which despised all other dangers; instead of living under a well-constituted government, mild and regular beyond the example of any age or kingdom, we should either have been subject to an arbitrary and illegal dominion at home, or, which is more probable, have long ago submitted, with all the nations round us, to those powerful enemies, who for a century past have been attempting to enslave the world.. And what other human blessings can be compared with that, which is the security and preservation of them all, the liberty of laws? What other, except that, which secures to us more than human blessings, the liberty of religion? What praise, and esteem, and veneration, are due to those who obtained them for us! And let it not be imagined that this merit is confined to the great every Briton may deserve well of his country. A spark of public virtue, scarce discerned among men in obscure sta |