for which he hath been pleased, in his righteous judgment, to suffer so great a calamity to befall us as the present controversy between Great Britain and the colonies; as also to implore the Divine blessing upon us, that, by the assistance of his grace, we may be enabled to reform whatever is amiss among us; that so God may be pleased to continue to us the blessings we enjoy, and remove the tokens of his displeasure, by causing harmony and union to be restored between Great Britain and these colonies, that we may again rejoice in the smiles of our sovereign, and in possession of those privileges which have been transmitted to us, and have the hopeful prospect that they shall be handed down entire to posterity under the Protestant succession in the illustrious House of Hanover. JOHN HANCOCK, PRESIDENT."

The preacher, Mr. Gordon, born at Hitchin, in England, pastor of an Independent church at Ipswich, removed to America in 1770, and was ordained pastor of the Jamaica Plain Church, in Roxbury, July 6, 1772. "His soul was engaged in " the American cause. He was chaplain to the Provincial Congress; and several sermons on public occasions during the struggle show his zeal and prudence as a Son of Liberty. He improved his excellent opportunities for fulness and fidelity in his "History of the Rise, Progress, and Establishment of the Independence of the United States of America: including an account of the late war, and of the thirteen colonies from their origin to that period," first published in 1788,- -a candid and impartial work, of which there have been several editions. He returned to England in 1786, and died at Ipswich, October 19, 1807, aged 77.- Allibone, Allen.

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This sermon excited the indignation of "the king's friends," one of whom, a friend to peace and good order," published " observations" upon it as "daring and treasonable, absurd and impertinent,

to "every honest man, every virtuous citizen," that "to let it pass disregarded would argue an inattention to the welfare of the public wholly inexcusable." "Where could this reverend politician,

general,

clerical

notable empiric,

ordained leader,

this church-militant

have learnt to preach up doctrines of sedition, rebellion,

carnage, and blood? Not, I am sure, from the merciful divulger of his religion, for he only taught the precepts of peace and forgiveness.

I most heartily wish, for the peace of America, that he and many others of his profession would confine themselves to gospel truths."

DISCOURSE IV.

A THANKSGIVING SERMON.

IT IS OF THE LORD'S MERCIES THAT WE ARE NOT CONSUMED, BECAUSE HIS COMPASSIONS FAIL NOT. Lam. iii. 22.

THE pulpit is devoted, in general, to more important purposes than the fate of kingdoms, or the civil rights of human nature, being intended to recover men from the slavery of sin and Satan, to point out their escape from future misery through faith in a crucified Jesus, and to assist them in their preparations for an eternal blessedness. But still there are special times and seasons when it may treat of politics. And, surely, if it is allowable for some who occupy it, by preaching up the doctrines of non-resistance and passive obedience, to vilify the principles and to sap the foundations of that glorious revolution that exalted the House of Hanover to the British throne, it ought to be no transgression in others, nor to be construed into a want of loyalty, to speak consistently with those approved tenets that have made George the Third the first of European sovereigns, who otherwise,

1 The publications of the period abound in such finger-points to these "missionaries," who were considered as simply ecclesiastical corps of sappers and miners, busy among the people, disguised as teachers of religion, disseminating doctrines subversive of liberty, and who were secretly in heart as zealous for the British ministry as were their more honorable brethren, the chaplains of the mercenary armies, who took the hazards of open war. Perhaps the sacrifices of the former were the greater.-ED.

with all his personal virtues, might have lived an obscure Elector.

Having, then, the past morning of this provincial thanksgiving, accommodated the text to the case of individuals, I shall now dedicate it, according to its original intention, to the service of the public, the situation of whose affars is both distressing and alarming.

The capital of the colony is barbarously treated, pretendedly for a crime, but actually for the noble stand she has made in favor of liberty against the partisans of slavery. She has distinguished herself by her animated opposition to arbitrary and unconstitutional proceedings, and therefore has been marked out, by ministerial vengeance,'

1 Official insolence and ignorance never received a quicker or more dignified rebuke than in the united and decisive voice of the colonies for Boston and against the ministry. In the debates on the Boston bills, Col. Barré said to the ministry: "You point all your revenge at Boston alone; but I think you will very soon have the rest of the colonies on your back." Salem nobly resented and refused the proffered bribe of the diverted commerce of Boston to her port. The newspapers published numerous acknowledgments of such substantial tokens of "aid and comfort" as this: "On Tuesday morning last came to town," - Boston, - "from Marblehead, eight cart-loads of salt fish; a generous donation from our sympathizing brethren of that small town."

The people of Massachusetts refusing any supplies for the British troops, Gen. Gage sent a vessel to Baltimore for a load of flour, for blankets, etc., but "the committee of correspondence of that place refused to furnish any of the articles until they heard from the General Congress, where they had sent an express to receive directions how they should act on the occasion;" yet that same committee were then freely contributing to the necessities of the Boston patriots. Poor Gage's supplies from England and elsewhere were intercepted and captured by "Yankee" privateers, and he was often reduced to predatory incursions.

A letter from Alexandria, Virginia, of July 6th, 1774, said: "All Virginia and Maryland are contributing for the relief of Boston, — of those who, by the late cruel act of Parliament, are deprived of their daily labor and bread, to prevent the inhabitants sinking under the oppression, or migrating, to keep up that manly spirit that has made them dear

to be made an example of, whereby to terrify other American cities into a tame submission. She is an example, and, thanks to Heaven! an example of patience and forti

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to every American." Enclosed was a list of the cargo of "Schooner Nassau," corn, flour, wheat, etc.,- consigned to the Hon. John Hancock and James Bowdoin, Esqrs., Mr. Samuel Adams, Isaac Smith, Esq., and the Gentlemen Committee" of Boston, for distribution. The "Gazette," which published this letter, says: "Every part of this extensive continent, so far as we have yet heard, appears to be deeply interested in the fate of this unhappy town. Many and great are the donations we have already received, and many more we have good reason to expect." The same paper contains "Resolutions unanimously entered into by the Inhabitants of South Carolina, at a General Meeting held at Charlestown," in July, 1774, which declare "that not only the dictates of humanity, but the soundest principles of true policy and self-preservation, make it necessary for the inhabitants of all the colonies in America to assist and support the people of Boston."

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Now was to be realized the splendid thought of the Rev. Dr. Mayhew's "Lord's-day Morning" meditations 1 "a communion of the colonies." "Letters of friendship and regard - a desire to cement and perpetuate union among ourselves flew like winged messengers of love from colony to colony, and from heart to heart; and on the seventh of October, 1774, George III. saw, not Boston and Massachusetts crushed beneath his German foot, not the fratricidal discord of base men in sordid haste to fatten upon the ruin of sister colonies despoiled by despotism,- for so low was his avowed policy, and so brutal the hope of his kingly breast; but, thank God! there was too little of Oxford "obedience," and too few of its minions in America, for such thrift; he saw not that, but a Continental Congress in session at Philadelphia, composed of "the representatives of his Majesty's faithful subjects in all the colonies from Nova Scotia to Georgia"- a new power in the world. Their committee - Thomas Lynch, of South Carolina, Samuel Adams, of Massachusetts, and Edmund Pendleton, of Virginia - prepared a letter to Gen. Gage, representing" that the town of Boston and province of Massachusetts Bay are considered by all America as suffering in the common cause for their noble and spirited opposition to oppressive acts of Parliament, calculated to deprive us of our most sacred rights and privileges," and remonstrating against his hostile military preparations in that town. His Majesty called them rebels," and they soon declared and proved themselves to be neither subjects nor rebels, but a free people. ED.

1 See his letter on pages 44, 45.

tude, to the no small mortification of her enemies, whose own base feelings led them to imagine that she would immediately become an abject supplicant for royal favor, though at the expense of natural and chartered rights. May some future historian, the friend of mankind and citizen of the world, have to record in his faithful and ever-living page that she never truckled, though British sailors and soldiers, contrary to their natural affection for the cause of liberty, were basely employed to intimidate her, but perseveringly held out through the fiery trial till a revolution of men and measures brought on her deliverance!

But it is not the capital alone that suffers. The late venal Parliament, in compliance with the directions of administration, have, under the false color of regulating the government of the colony, mutilated its charter, and conveyed dangerous powers to individuals for the enforcing and maintaining those encroachments that they have ventured, in defiance of common equity, to make upon the rights of a free people; and had not the calmness and prudence of others supplied their lack of wisdom, the country might by this time have become an Aceldama.a

a I take this opportunity of making my public acknowledgments to his Excellency the governor for not having precipitated the country into a civil war — an event which, as appears by his letter,1 he ardently wishes may never exist. Should the continent be exercised with so great an evil, I promise myself, from the known humanity - the constant attendant of true bravery - the known humanity of the British officers and troops, that they will not add barbarity to the unavoidable calamities of war. But should any hellish policy order its being done, the colonies, 't is to be supposed, will dread all less than slavery to those cruel masters that can issue such savage edicts.

1 General Gage, in his reply of October 20th, 1774, to the letter of the Continental Congress just cited, wrote: "I ardently wish that the common enemies to both countries may see, to their disappointment, that these disputes between the mother country and the colonies have terminated like the quarrels of lovers, and increased the affection which they ought to bear to each other." - ED.