or if they ventured them abroad, it was in the dark, dressed out with modesty and bashfulness, either cloathed in doubts and scruples, or veiled in allusion and allegory: but since the diffusion of philosophy, that philosophy which unravels every principle, religious and civil, and persuades its infatuated votaries, that it is good for them to be here" without God, and without government all this is over-Infidelity now steps, boldly, forth in loose attire like a harlot, and stares us in the face at noon-day with brazen impudence, laughing at every thing that is grave, and burlesquing every thing that is holy: just as the Jews did of old, when they turned the expressions of Jeremiah into ridicule, and the words of Ezekiel into pleasant songs.

This is a short, faint sketch of our public transgressions: let us now descend a little into private life, and we shall find, I am afraid, that an unbridled licence of manners, generally, prevails among usthat fashion and custom have given a kind of prescription to vice, and that virtue is almost worn out of date, and laughed out of countenancethat fraud and cozenage, oppression and falsehood, ingratitude and baseness, are too common in our dealings with one another-that pleasure is more followed than piety, and mammon much more devoutly served than God. I am almost ashamed to mention our enormous excesses-that riot and debauchery, that effeminacy and frivolism, but, above all, that destructive spirit of gaming, which debases and debilitates the mind, and renders it like the deadly tree in the island

Called, in the Malayan language, Bohon upas. There is a similar tree, but not altogether so fatal, on the coast of Macassar, called Cajoe upas.

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of Java, whose malignant poison diffuses itself far and wide, and which is approached by nothing, but what is infamous, condemned, and criminal.

These then are some of the sins, which we are here called upon to confess and bewail, with penitent and contrite hearts but let us remember, that penitence without amendment is futile and ridiculous: we must not only cease to do evil, but learn to do well." As those dangers, which so lately threatened this country with desolation, have arisen from a spirit of selfishness and faction, let us not only guard against this passion ourselves, but look upon those as the enemies and pests of their country, who, under the delusion of Reform, would blow up the very foundations of Government, Property, and Religion. Let the example of France be a warning to us to resist every attempt, every overture, towards change and innovation. Nothing, we know, is more popular in the beginning than sedition, and nothing less so in the end. It enters upon the stage in the most gallant manner, with a brave and goodly appearance: its aims are all open and generous, its professions fair, specious, and plausible it has the voice indeed of Jacob-but the "hands are the hands of Esau :" it destroys with schemes of reformation, enslaves under the glorious name of liberty, and scatters firebrands, ruin, and death, purely for the public good. The political atmosphere, which was lately so black and louring, that the thunder seemed ready to burst upon our heads, is now, blessed be God! clear and luminousthe storm has passed over like a cloud: but let not this serenity put us off our guard, nor lull us into supineness and security: let us continue to join heart

and

and hand in defence of our Sovereign and our Country; a country which for ages has been the envy and admiration of the world; and a Sovereign, whose only aim and desire are to support its independence and glory, to preserve its Constitution free and inviolate, and with all the anxiety of a tender father to promote the real interests and prosperity of his people. Let such be our conduct with regard to public affairs: in private life, let us lay aside every weight, and the "sin that doth so easily beset us:" above all, let us continue to cultivate those tender affections, those soft and gentle sensibilities of our nature, the fruits of which in this vale of misery" are a just tribute to the afflictions of our unfortunate brethren. The compassion, the generosity, the munificence of this country, in every case of distress, in every circumstance of misfortune, render us the admiration and envy of the world. Other nations may vie with us in commerce, arts, and arms in these, the industry of the mechanic, the ingenuity of the artist, and the valor of the soldier, may be equal to ours: but in charity and benevolence we have no rivals, no competitors; nor are we indebted in these to the merit of another, for the whole glory, how great soever it is, and great it certainly is, the whole glory is our own. When I look around me, and reflect on the number of public Charities in this metropolis-too various to particularize--I feel an honest pride in the name of Englishman, and humbly hope that the Father of Mercies, the God of all Pity, will forgive our failings and transgressions, and that charities such as these may avert His vengeance, and ❝ cover the multitude of sins." But it would be unpardonable in me, on such an occasion as the present, I i4

to pass by in silence your liberality to those poor unfortunate emigrants, who have been driven from their country by the merciless sword of anarchy and murder. May your bounty prove to them, like the widow's cruise of oil, inexhaustible; and, to yourselves, like the alms of Cornelius, a memorial before God! Ye have been, as the Prophet Isaiah speaks, "a support to "the poor, a support to the needy in their distress, a "refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when "the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against "the wall." But I must beg leave to recommend more particularly the emigrant clergy to your benevolence, in this their extreme affliction. Educated to minister at the altar, and totally ignorant of all the secular businesses and employments of life, they have no ability to help themselves, no possible means of subsistence, but your bounty: "they cannot dig-10 "beg they would be ashamed." Alas that they, who have so often ministered to the spiritual wants of their fellow creatures, should be thus exposed to the extremity of temporal distress, of " hunger and thirst, "of cold and nakedness!" That they, who have so often wiped away the tear from the eye of affliction, and cheered the bosom of comfortless despair, should thus become a prey themselves to sorrow, and despondency unutterable! That they who have alleviated the horrors, and blunted "the sting of death," should have the king of terrors, constantly, staring them in the face, in danger of perishing by famine, and kept alive from day to day almost by a miracle, by precarious bounty! I feel, my brethren, upon this melancholy occasion, far more than I am able to express-it is a subject that comes home to the bosom of every clergy

man!

man! I myself, who am now in ease and affluence, recommending to you the case of these poor destitutes, might have been in. the same situation with themdriven from my country, by the ruffian hand of reformation, from my subsistence, my comforts, my connections, from every thing that is near and dear to me-and obliged to wander " in a strange land, whose "language I knew not, neither understood what they " say;" a poor, destitute, miserable exile; without friends, without the common necessaries of life; suffering, for conscience' sake, such an accumulation of distress," as it hath scarce entered into the heart of "man to conceive!" In such a situation, departing as "Abraham did from Haran, not knowing whither "he went," what could I have wished, except that the hand of Providence would have conducted me to YOU, to this "Zoar, this city of refuge ?" Believe me, Christians, "God is not unrighteous, to forget your "work and labor of love, which ye have shewn to"wards His name, in that ye have ministered to His ❝ servants, and do minister." No! He will reward you quickly in this world, for "the blessing of those, "who were ready to perish, shall come upon you:" He will direct, assist, and bless you while you live, and, in the end, give you "an inheritance among "them, who are sanctified." Amen!

SERMON