178 
carried on, is weighty and momentous, no 
less than the preservation of our liberties 
and our lives. We are fighting now for the 
shade of dur own oaks, and the streams from 
our own springs. We are called now to de- 
fend our rightful monarch from degradation 
and insult; our princes, our nobles, and our 
senators from poverty and exile; our wives 
and daughters from the brutal violence of a 
fawless soldiery; our fathers and our sons 
from slavery and from death. When we 
think over the magnitude and extent of the 
misery with which we are threatened; in- 
stead of despondency, why feel we hot con- 
fidence? T'o-aninated exertions it. cannot 
fail to rouse every British arm; and that these ~ 
exertions will prevail, it affords to every 
British heart no unstable ground of hope. 
The proud Assyrian led in vain his locust 
troops to pollute and to destroy the little hill, 
of Zion: the Persian despot having marched 
in eastern pomp, at the bead of the whole 
force of Iris extensive empire, to insult and 
to overthrow the venerable scat of ancient 
iberty, returned a miserable fugitive, unpi- 
tied and alone, through those yery provinces, 
which were lately not sufficient to supply the 
tuxuries of his table. We ourselves, in 
later times, were discomfited, when we un- 
justly attempted to prevent the independence 
of our powerful and distant colonies, and to 
fill our treasury on the banks of the Thames, 
Art. XLIX. A Sermon preached at Peterborough, on Wednesday, October 19, 1 803,. 
the Day appointed for a General Fast. 
Prebendary of that Cathedral. 8vo. pp. 
FROM a striking and appropriate 
passage of scripture, (Hab. ii. 2.) Mr. 
Madan directs the attention of his audi- 
ence to some just and pertinent reflec- 
tions. on. the state of public affairs. 
From the first clause of his text, “ O 
Lord, I have heard thy speech ‘and was 
afraid,” he properly represents the pre- 
sent threatening aspect of events, as an 
- awful intimation to mankind of the ne- 
‘cessity of reformation, and the practice 
‘of public and. private virtue. 
not encourage us to hope for victory and 
safety, because we may conceive our 
adversaries to be more wicked than our- 
‘selves ; we have each of us crimes of 
sufficient magnitude to account for; and 
-it is our wisdom to estimate, with most 
scrupulous examination, the sum of our 
own guilt. But while, in hearing the 
“voice of God, we have reasbn to fear, | 
We have also reason to hope that “ in 
THEOLOGY AND ECCLESIASTICAL AFFAIRS. 
-valued possessions; ahd reduce ts to slavery, 
99 
sae 
tle does” 
‘language partakes rather too much of a- 
with the profits of the industrious settler om 
the shores of the Ohio: and event they whe 
are now threatening to be the invaders, were — 
not suffered to fall before the numerous and 
well-disciplined forces that were. not long 
since on their march to dictate to them the — 
government they should form, and the laws 
they should obey. Why then may we not ~ 
humbly trust in the same benevolent Provi- 
dence to baile and to bring to nought those 
counsels aud these attempts, which would — 
deprive us of our dearest privileges; violate ~ 
our most sacred rights; rob us of our most 
misery, and ruin?” 
The sequel of this disconrse is ¢m-— 
ployed in an estimate of our national © 
character, and the aspect which it bears — 
on our present situation; in an animated — 
description of the consequences whicla 
would result from the success ‘of the 
hostile‘ enterprize; and an earnest re 
commendation, as the importance of the — 
cause demands, to the use of those ef- 
forts, im dependanee on divine Provi- — 
dence, which may most speedily accom- ~ 
plish a favourable termination of the ~ 
contest in which interests of such mag= 
nitude are involved. ¥ 
2 
-By the Rev. Spencer Mavar, 4. M7 
¢, 
: a 
wrath he will remember mercy.” From” 
this part of his‘ text, Mr. Madan takes” 
occasion to review some of the most” 
remarkable instances of national deli-— 
verance, which occur in the latter ages 
of our history; to advert to our human 
means of protection, and to encourage 
the hope that, if repentant, we shall, 1 
the day of danger, experience the divine 
blessing and assistance. 
The composition of Mr. Madan’s ser= 
mon is, in general, careful and somes 
what studied. In a few instancés, his 
poetical structure. For instance: “The 
victories, the fiercencss, the rapidity of) 
the foe, became conscious of a sudden re= 
verse.”? The following words (p. 23;)) 
present a complete verse of ten syllables: 
“ Or taint with pestilence the breath of 
heaven.” 
