proper mixture of monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy. The people choose their representatives to make laws for them, and the king, as well as the subject, is bound by these laws. No man is disturbed in his liberty, his property, or conscience; nor subjected to the capricious pleasure of the greatest man in the kingdom. I may also safely affirm, that of all the kings in Europe, or perhaps in the world, our gracious Sovereign is the most tender of the liberties of his subjects, and zealous for the constitution of his country. Mercy and clemency are his delight; but his gentle nature is pained, when he is constrained to exercise even the wholesome severities of justice; and never was a king's government more firmly established in the hearts and affections of his subjects. He is not perpetually making exorbitant claims by a pretended prerogative, like many of his predecessors, especially those of the family of Stewart. He does not assume the province of Heaven to prescribe to conscience, but allows every man the free and unmolested exercise of his religion, who lives inoffensive to the government. And through the mercy of God, the principles of liberty are more generally embraced than ever in Great Britain. In short, the inhabitants of that favourite island, and the colonies dependent upon it, are the happiest of mankind as to all the blessings of government. And shall we not be tenacious of these blessings, which are of such great importance to us, and our posterity, and which were purchased at the expense of their blood, by our brave fore-fathers? And now, by way of contrast, let us take a view of the French government, and of our wretched circumstances if we should fall under it. There, every thing is done according to the pleasure of an arbitrary, absolute monarch, who is above law and all control. He may take away the liberty, and even the lives of his subjects, without assigning a reason why. There you must conform to all the superstitions and idolatries of the church of Rome, or lose your life; or at best, be obliged to flee your country, hungry and famishing, and leave all your estate behind you. Nay, to such a height is persecution carried there now, that they place soldiers to guard the frontiers of the country, and will not allow the protestants the poor favour of going to beg their bread, or begin the world anew, in a strange country. It is but a little while ago, that a minister was apprehended, condemned, and hanged, all in three hours, and for no other crime but preaching a sermon to a number of protestants. And even now, such as can make their escape, are flying over in multitudes to Great

Britain that land of liberty. And can you bear the thought, that you and your children should have such an iron yoke as this riveted about your necks? Would you not rather die in defence of your privileges? I am sure you would, if you had the spirit of men or of christians. Therefore, improve your religion, lest you lose it make a good use of your liberty, lest you forfeit it ; and cry mightily to God for deliverance.

To heighten the terrors of a French government, they have on this continent a numerous body of Indian savages in their interest, whom they will hound out upon us; and from them we may expect such bloody barbarities as we cannot bear so much as to think of. If these Barbarians should make inroads upon us, as they have begun to do in some of the neighbouring provinces, how miserable are we !

To alarm you the more, reflect upon the growing power of France. She keeps an army of an hundred and forty thousand men on foot, even in time of peace; and is undoubtedly superior to the English by land. She has, also, of late, greatly increased in strength at sea; in which Britain has hitherto maintained the sovereignty. And though in America, the French are but few in comparison of the English, yet they receive very powerful recruits from their mother country.

It is also a most discouraging omen, that though the British colonies are superior in number, yet they are so possessed with a spirit of contention, or so stupidly insensible of danger, that they do not exert themselves with proper vigour for their own defence, or delay it too long to prevent the influence of so active an enemy. If we tamely suffer ourselves to be enslaved, while we are so much superior in power, we well deserve it.

Fourthly, If God govern the world by means of second causes, then it is our duty, according to our characters, to use all proper means to defend our country, and stop the encroachments of our enemies. We have no ground for a lazy confidence in divine Providence; nor should we content ourselves with idle, inactive prayers; but let us rouse ourselves, and be active. Let us cheerfully pay the taxes the government has laid upon us to support this expedition. Let us use our influence to diffuse a military spirit around us. I have no scruple thus openly to declare, that such of you whose circumstances allow of it, may not only lawfully enlist and take up arms, but that your so doing is a christian duty, and acting an honourable part, worthy of a man, a freeman, a Briton, and a christian.

SERMON 71.

A THANKSGIVING SERMON FOR NATIONAL BLESSINGS.

EZEKIEL Xx. 43, 44. And there shall ye remember your ways, and all your doings, wherein ye have been defiled, and ye shall loath yourselves in your own sight, for all your evils that ye have committed. And ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I have wrought with you for my name's sake, not according to your wicked ways, nor according to your corrupt doings, O ye house of Israel, saith the Lord God.*

I AM by no means fond of employing your sacred time in harangues upon political or military subjects: and last Sunday I intended to touch upon them once for all, and then confine myself to the more important concerns of religion and eternity; but Providence has surprised us in one week with so many, and such important turns in our favour, that loyalty, religion, and all the virtues of patriotism and christianity united, require us to take grateful notice of them. Therefore, I beg an hour of your sacred time for this purpose. I need not tell you, what you already know, that Ticonderoga, Crown Point, and Niagara, are in our possession; nests of savages that had so long ravaged our frontiers; fortifications that had defied our utmost efforts in I know not how many fruitless expeditions, and cost our country and nation so many thousands of money, and so many limbs and lives of our countrymen and fellow subjects. Before the hour of victory, destined by Heaven, all our attempts were in vain, and issued in inglorious defeats: but when that hour is come, the terror of the Lord falls upon our enemies, and the important acquisitions are made as without hands. The sword of the Lord and of General Amherst gleaming from afar, strike our enemies into a panic; they lose all power of resistance, and the terror of the British name puts them to flight.

After frequent days of fasting and humiliation under the frowns of Heaven upon our country and nation, and still more frequent occasions for them; after the Lord of hosts has called

U

Hanover, Jan. 11, 1759.-Nassau-Hall, Aug. 12, 1759.

us to weeping and mourning, and all the sad solemnities of repentance and sorrow, for a course of years; behold! through the unmerited, and almost unexpected mercy of God, we, at length, see one more day of joy and thanksgiving. To this agreeable duty, Heaven calls us by the late success of our expeditions: and our government has gratefully obeyed the call: and divine and human authority conspire to render the business of this day our duty. And, oh! that we may engage in it with hearts overflowing with gratitude, and all the sacred passions, which the occasion requires!

I need not tell you, that you have occasion for joy and thanksgiving, when you know, Cape Breton is ours, and Forte-de-Quesne is abandoned and demolished. Cape Breton, the key of the French settlements in America, the object of our anxious fears, and of fruitless expeditions of immense expense-Cape Breton, whose inexhaustible fishery enriched the treasury of France, and educated so many men for her marine service-Cape Breton, the asylum of the privateers that ruined our trade, and that shut up our entrance by sea into the heart of Canada-Cape Breton, the possession of which, puts it in our power to weaken the enemy both in Europe and America, by cutting off their mutual intercourse by navigation ;-CAPE BRETON IS OURS-ours, with the additional acquisition of the fertile island of St. John-ours, after a short siege, and a very inconsiderable loss*—ours, after a long season of anxious suspense and discouragements; after repeated disappointments and mortifications.

Forte-de-Quesne, the den of those mongrel savages of French and Indians, who have ravaged our frontiers, captivated and butchered so many of our fellow subjects, and ruined so many poor families-Forte-de-Quesne, the object of Braddock's evertragical and unfortunate expedition,† near which so many brave lives have been repeatedly thrown away in vain-Forte-deQuesne, the magazine which furnished our Indian enemies with provisions, arms and fury, to make their barbarous inroads upon the British settlements, and prevented our growing country from extending its frontiers on the Ohio-Forte-de-Quesne is abandoned and demolished; demolished by those hands that built it, without the loss of a man on our side. The terror of the Lord fell upon them, and they fled at the approach of our army, so superior to them in number, and so resolute to pursue the ex†Vide the 69th discourse.

*Not quite three hundred men,

pedition, notwithstanding the severities of approaching winter. What though those, if such there be, who thirsted for their blood, are not gratified? What though our commanders may not have acquired the same military glory, as if they had taken it af ter all the dreadful formalities of a siege? What though we are not possessed of a fort, arms, and ammunition, ready to our hands? These disadvantages are more than balanced by this con sideration, so agreeable to every man of humanity and benevolence; that the lives and limbs of men have been spared, many of which, no doubt, must have been lost in a regular siege; and, that only wood, and stone, and iron, and the other materials and furniture of the fort, have felt the violence of our enemies. We have been at a loss to account for the slow motions of our army the last summer; and such domestic politicians are very incompetent judges of an affair so distant from them. But now, methinks, the event makes all plain: they were graciously delayed by the powerful, though invisible and unacknowledged hand of divine Providence, that the acquisition might be made without the effusion of the precious blood of mankind, and the destruction of human lives and limbs. Many have died by sickness, by rash attempts,* and the unavoidable hardships of a late campaign in that inhospitable wilderness but how many more, may we reasonably suppose, would have been cut off, had they been obliged to attack the fort? No doubt, some of our friends would never have returned, whom we have now had the pleasure of welcoming home with open arms. We did not want the lives of our enemies, but only to drive such troublesome neighbours to a proper distance. This end is fully obtained. And since the French are removed, the Indian savages, who have done us the most mischief, will be under a necessity of breaking off their alliance with them, and espouse our interest, or at least become neuters. This is one of the happiest revolutions in our favour that we could wish.

Besides these successes by land in America, in which we are more immediately concerned, success has also attended the arms of Britain on her own element, the ocean; the French trade has sustained irreparable losses by the capture and destruction of so

* Such a rash attempt, as far as I can learn, was that of Major Grant and Major Lewis, who marched with seven or eight hundred men, and only small arms, against the fort, without orders which the garrison observing, sallied out, and cut off near three hundred men. The two majors, men of tried bravery, were taken prisoners, and sent to Montreal.