1793] ^^'^^' ^yiLLIAM SMITH, D. D. 39 1 



which will not be denied by any man who professes to believe in 

 the existence of God." 



"In vain," he continues, "are we assembled on this solemn da}-, 

 if it might be considered by any that the civil ordinance which 

 convokes us is only a political engine or device to awe and con- 

 trol the vulgar mind, and not a certain unequivocal proof 'that, as 

 a people, we acknowledge a God over all ; supreme, almighty, and 

 enjoying all perfections.' It may be hoped, then," he proceeds, 

 " that the threshold of this holy place has not been profaned this 

 day by the unhallowed step of a man or a woman who doth not 

 believe in the heart, as well as approach to confess with the lips, 

 'that there is a God who governs the affairs of his creatures in this 

 world, and that the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testa- 

 ment were graciously given, by his divine inspiration and authority, 

 to guide us in the right way through the intricate path of life and 

 the mazes of a mysterious Providence.' 



"The dealings of the Almighty, therefore," he adds, "with a 

 people who acknowledge (as we do) the sovereign and uncon- 

 trollable power of God's special as well as general providence, in 

 ordering the affairs of men, will be a fit subject of our present 

 meditations; and the more to be chosen, as we shall have for our 

 guide a history authenticated on the records of Holy Scripture." 



The preacher then traces the history of the Jews, upon which 

 his text, as he remarks, yields a prominent and irrefragable com- 

 mentary, as well as a striking similitude to our own history in 

 many great and leading circumstances. 



He notes that the Jews had for many }^ears been without a gov- 

 ernment of their own, and sojourned in a foreign land, reduced to 

 a condition no better than that of the worst and most degraded 

 slaves; until, at last, the Almighty had compassion on their mis- 

 eries, and by the hand of Moses delivered them from the rod of 

 Pharaoh, and conducted them through the waves of the Red Sea, 

 and a perilous wilderness, to the land promised to their forefather 

 Abraham and his seed forever.* Like the Jews, our fathers were 

 conducted by the hand of God through a perilous ocean, and 

 penetrated into a wilderness to hew out for themselves settlements 

 and improve them into a Canaan for the benefit of their posterity. 



■" See Gen. xiii. 14, and xxvi. 4, 5. 



