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SERMON

XXIX.

PSALM CXxii. 6.

Pray for the peace of Jerufalem.

FELLOW-CITIZENS, we now affem.

ble, in obedience to the command of our Sovereign, to pray for the peace of Jerufalem, and for the profperity of those that love her. Loyalty to our king, and love to our country, are the paffions which ought to animate us on this day*. That attachment which good citizens bear to their country, has ever been esteemed a virtue of the highest class. Not to mention the Greeks and the Romans, the hiftory of the Ifraelites, with which you are better acquainted, prefents us with grand and striking instances of patriotism and public fpirit. They never mention the names of Zion and Jerufalem, without gladness and rapture. The words which I have now read to you, feem to have come from the heart, and breathe this fpirit in the most lively manner.

During their captivity, when they fat by the rivers of Babylon, the Jews thought upon Zion, and wept. When they prayed to Heaven, they turned their faces towards Jerufalem. At their return from captivity, they are described as halting on a hill, over which they had to march, taking a fond look of Judea, from which they had been banished so long; bursting into tears at the view, weeping as they went • Upon a fast-day during the American war.

forward, at the recognisance of their ancient country, and their native land. Our Saviour, who was a pattern of all goodness, fet us an example of this virtue. He loved his country, and uttered that celebrated exclamation of patriotism, " O Jerufalem, Jerufalem, "How often would I have gathered thee, as a hen gathereth her brood under her wings!"

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As we now meet to pray for the peace or welfare of our Jerufalem, (for in the language of Scripture, peace is put for all kinds of profperity,) I fhall endeavour to fhow you at this time, wherein the public welfare confifts.

It confifts in the national liberty, the national wealth and industry, the national defence, and the national character.

The first ingredient in the public happiness is liberty; a privilege invaluable, but frequently mifunderstood, and still more frequently abused. Abfolute liberty to do what we please, is abfolute power. If one alone, or a few possess this, the rest are in slavery; if all have it, the whole must be in confufion. In order to prevent mutual encroachments, and afcertain each perfon's claims, liberty must be secured by a constitution, and guarded by law. In the state of nature, men are not only free, but independent; among the wandering tribes of favages, none claim authority over others; but as fuch a state cannot fubfift long, whenever men enter into formed fociety, they give up fome of their natural rights, in order to preserve the reft; they no longer wield the fword of justice themselves; it is given to the magistrate; they intrust their property to the laws, and their protection to the king.

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Still, however, that is the happiest form of ernment, which beft fecures the natural rights of It is here that the British conftitution triumphs. Poffeffing advantages which no other form of government ever poffeffed, it ftands forth the envy of the neighbouring nations, and a pattern to fucceeding times. Liberty is the birthright of every Briton. That grand charter of Nature to her children is established and confirmed by law. The conftitution, like the providence of Heaven, extends its gracious regards to all; while it protects the poor in the poffeffion of their legal rights, it checks the infolence of the great, and fets bounds to the prerogative of Majesty itself, faying to the king, "Thus "far, and no farther, does thy power extend." All the members of the state are reprefented in the great council of the nation, and have a voice in the Legiflature; the subjects are taxed by their own consent. There is no defpotic or difcretionary power in any part of the conftitution. No action must be deemed a crime, but what the laws have plainly determined to be fuch; no crime must be imputed to a man, but from a legal proof before his judges; and these judges must be his fellow-subjects and his peers, who are obliged, by their own intereft, to have a watch. ful eye over encroachments and violence. "We

"must ever admire as a masterpiece of political wif"dom, and as the key-ftone of civil liberty, that stat"ute which forces the fecrets of every prifon to be re

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vealed, the cause of every commitment to be declar"ed, and the person of the accused to be produced, "that he may claim his enlargement, or his trial, "" within a limited time." By thefe means, Great

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Britain hath become what ancient patriots wished, a government of laws, and not of men. Highly favoured nation and happy people, if they knew their felicity, and did not upon occafions, by their own fault, turn the greatest of civil bleffings into a curfe!

In the fecond place, the national welfare confifts in the national industry and wealth. It is a vulgar error to fuppofe, that the greatnefs of a nation depends upon the number of its inhabitants. It is not the number of the people, but their being usefully employed, that adds to the true grandeur and felicity of a state. A nation is a great family, where every member has a sphere marked out and a part to perform, and which, if it abounds with the idle, must fall to ruin." Men crowd where the fituation is tempt

ing, and multiply according to the means of fub"fiftence." Prefent the proper objects; let the mechanic arts be cultivated; let manufactures abound, and commerce flourish; and citizens will come from the east and from the weft, and from the fouth and from the north. Every thing in the world is purchafed by labour and by industry.

Our paffions and defires are the causes of labour and industry. When a nation introduces manufactures and commerce, new defires are created, and new passions are raised; men increase the enjoyments, and refine upon the pleasures of life. Not satisfied with what is necessary, which is a vague term, and has a reference to the fancy, and to the habit of living, they look out for what is comfortable, what is elegant, and what is delicate in life. In order to supply these recent wants, the possessor of land, the manufacturer, and the merchant, redouble their la

bour and attention. Thus new induftry is excited, greater numbers of men are employed, the grandeur of the fovereign, and the happiness of the state, come to coincide. By this means, a stock of labour comes to be laid up for public use.

Trade and industry are in reality nothing but a stock of labour, which, in times of peace and tranquillity, are employed for the ease and fatisfaction of individuals; but in the exigencies of ftate, may in part be turned to public advantage. The cultivation of these arts is favoured, and forwarded in our country, by that fecurity which we enjoy. What every man has, is his own. The voice of the oppreflor is never heard in our streets. The hand of rapacious power is never ftretched out to rob the industrious of the fruit of his labour.

Thirdly, The public welfare confifts in the national defence. The police of every well-modelled ftate has a reference to war and to national fafety. The legiflator of Sparta, one of the most famous of the ancient republics, thought that nations were by nature in a state of hoftility; he took his measures accordingly, and obferving that all the poffeffions of the vanquished pertain to the victor, he held it ridiculous to propose any benefit to his country, before he had provided that it should not be conquered. A most neceffary provision; for unless a state be sufficient for its own defence, it muft fall an eafy prey to every invader. It was the intention of nature, that nations, as well as men, should guard themselves. Hence leffons of war are delivered in Sacred Scripture, and principles of emulation and diffenfion are strongly implanted in the foul of man. Human na

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