set on our Religion, all concur to make us feel war chastisement, and peace a consolation. We have not, it is true, from the happy circumstance that this country is preserved from invasion, the horror of seeing our fields covered with the dead, or our rivers flowing with human blood, We know not the misery of having our sons forcibly torn from our embraces to arrest the fury of the enemy, or to repair the losses of an army. Not only our persons, but our possessions and goods are preserved from the violence and licentiousness of the soldiery, who often pay as little regard to the rules of justice among their friends and allies, as to the laws of humanity among their enemies. How many nations, both innocent and deserving, have been reduced to misery by enormous contributions, or by the abominable plunder to which they are compelled to submit? The accounts we have received, from the daily channels of communication, of all these desolations, should, surely, impress our hearts with a due sense of the happiness of our situation, and of the abundant mércies vouchsafed to us.. Our liberty, that jewel so precious in the eyes of all who have the power of reflection our priviléges, privileges peculiar to this united kingdom, do not depend on the will of a victorious prince who is a stranger to us, and to our laws; they are not exposed to the caprice of an arbitrary sovereign, supported by a standing army, raised by urgent necessity, or insatiable ambition, for the purpose of intimidating subjects whom he would subdue, of levying imposts they Horace, lib. iv. Carmina Ode 5. are are unable to bear, and of enslaving at once their persons and their minds. You have been armed, it is true, but it was for your own defence, for the protection of your families, and for the support of a Constitution, which is both your happiness and security. Lastly. In the peace which Providence hath restored to us, our public worship of Almighty God is not disturbed, our altars are not profaned, our temples are not overthrown, our conscience is not constrained, We can worship God with full liberty, and can improve ourselves without restraint in our holy Religion. The Scriptures esteem this as the very highest advantage which the Jewish nation enjoyed in the midst of peace. "He shewed his word unto Jacob, his statutes and ordinances unto Israel: He hath "not dealt so with any other nation. How beautiful 66 upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace! The "Lord is good, a strong-hold in the day of trouble, "and He knoweth them that trust in Him." Such, indeed, are the sentiments of all good men, who know the excellency of Religion and the value of the privilege of worshipping God according to their con science. How many other advantages doth peace bring upon earth! Why then, O God, should it be so often troubled by the ambition of conquests, by the jealousies of pride, by vain glory, by sordid avarice? Let all, who would violate peace and promote war, be esteemed not only as pernicious citizens, but as the enemies of the human race. Ah! rather may we all celebrate the advantages of peace, may we all unite in establishing establishing it; may senators who declaim, statesmen who direct, and Kings who sanction, all, all concur in the love of peace! II. The Almighty, oftener than once, appears to have interrupted the course of nature for the purpose of obtaining an extraordinary deliverance for the children of Israel, and of granting them peace by the operation of unexpected miracles. As their God in a more especial manner, He gave them proofs of a peculiar protection. But what! if the Supreme Being doth not appear to protect us by miracles, shall we be so stupid, or so ungrateful, as to renounce His sovereignty, "who maketh peace in our borders?" God governs this world by his Providence; this is a truth suggested by reason, All, even the most trifling, events happen, merely, through the permission, and direction of an all-wise Superintendence. Author of human societies, the Almighty vouchsafes to govern, and take care of them, conformably to His wisdom and goodness. David, convinced of this truth, beseeched God that He would grant peace to Jerusalem: "Pray for the "peace of Jerusalem. May peace be within her " walls!" And Isaiah speaks thus unto his Almighty Defender, "Lord, thou wilt ordain peace for us: for "thou also hast wrought all our works in us." The first Christians, influenced by the same persuasion, of fered in their public worship, public prayers for the peace and preservation of the *empire. If we look into the history of this country, and observe the perils to which it has, frequently, been ex Tertullian's Apology, ch. xxx, and xxxix. posed posed, can we contemplate, without astonishment and reverence, the means by which Providence has rescued us from ruin, and established us in peace? It is God then who "maketh peace in our borders," and every national record reveals to us the protection of Heaven, visibly declared, more than once, in our favor. Will any one say, that we are indebted for peace to our maritime strength, which is formidable to every foe? or to the nature of our Constitution, which embraces the welfare of the very lowest classes of society, as the blood circulates through every part of a healthy body? These, it is acknowleged, are some of the means which the merciful goodness of our Protector hath himself directed to bless us with the blessings of peace, But let us learn to pierce through the cloud of second causes, there to discover the invisible God who ordains them. Is it not by His gracious goodness that we have been enabled to provide a navy; and is it not He who giveth to our commanders skill to plan, and to our mariners courage to execute? Is it not the wisdom of heaven which has directed our Legislature, by whose counsels we have been hitherto preserved-counsels which have preserved us from the frenzy of revolution?" In fine, is it not God, who, holding the hearts of kings in His hands, and inclining then, as rivers run in their beds, hath defeated the projects of those who were meditating our entire destruction? Notwithstanding the modes of defence on which, with audacious rashness, presumptuous man sometimes reckons ; reckons; should our sins be so many, and so aggravated, as to provoke the Almighty to forsake us, by what a variety of means, and by what unexpected and unforeseen events might we not be brought to destruction? He might permit a spirit of faction and of discord to diffuse its pernicious poison both throughout the mighty and the mean, and we might be overwhelmed in ruin even by ourselves. How many other circumstances, which we can neither foresee nor prevent, might disturb our domestic repose, endanger our personal liberty, and annihilate our civil existence? By acquainting ourselves, thoroughly, with the history of other states, we may acquire the conviction, that we have, without the divine protection, more to dread than we, commonly, imagine. How many celebrated empires, of which we know no more than by historic records! How many states, enjoying a prosperity which appeared to promise them a duration coexistent with the world, are, through external, and internal, causes, fallen into entire decay! teaching us that it is, solely, in the protection of Heaven that we are to expect our security, and place our confidence in a word, that it is God who giveth peace to every country. These blessings of Providence should lead us to bless God by the piety of our thanksgivings, to obey Him through a spirit of love, to implore His mercy through a sense of our dependence: such are the duties. which I am, lastly, to lay before you, III. Convinced that it is to the protection of Heaven that we are indebted for all the advantages accruing from peace, we ought, after the example, and according to the direction, of the author of the Psalm |