39^ LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [l793 



not ashamed of its doctrines, nor to acknowledge the goodness of the 

 Almighty, by promoting the ordinances of his religion; by making and 

 executing laws for its support, and for the orderly administration of jus- 

 tice, constantly striving, by the purity of their lives, the simplicity of 

 their manners, their love of truth and of one another, to give an ex- 

 ample to their children of their obedience to the divine laws and their 

 zeal for the prosperity of their country. 



And when thus, for more than a hundred years, they had been pro- 

 ceeding from strength to strength, and flourishing under this simplicity 

 of manners and regard to true religion, I might lead your attention to 

 what the Lord did for us, their posterity, when we were called to 

 struggle through blood and to contend for our dearest and most sacred 

 rights. How numerous were the instances of his divine favor and in- 

 terposition, in the establishment of our civil liberties and independence, 

 assuring to us and our posterity every civil blessing, together with the free 

 exercise of our holy religion, according to the rights of conscience, 

 under a government of laws and a constitution of our own happy choice, 

 there being none to make us afraid. 



But what has been our sense or improvement of those numerous and 

 invaluable blessings which the Almighty, with so liberal a hand, hath 

 even heaped upon us? Let us not be alarmed at the question, nor 

 shrink from the answer. 



May it not be asked, then, of what avail is it that we boast of our 

 frames of government, and that we are blessed with civil liberty, accord- 

 ing to our highest conceptions of the name, if we know not how to 

 respect the laws, and to distinguish liberty from licentiousness? If there 

 remain those among us who, from pride, self-interest and the lust of 

 power, cannot rest contented with a wise and efficacious system of joint 

 government; but still pursuing something new, and adapted to their 

 own phantasies, seek rather no government at all, or a government of 

 such variant and discordant particles as to produce a Babel of confu- 

 sion, rather than a Jerusalem, or city of God, happy and united within 

 itself! 



What avails it that God hath given us peace with all foreign states 

 and powers, if with difficulty we are to be restrained from rushing vol- 

 untarily into the horrid scenes of blood and devastation in the old 

 world from which God hath graciously set us at a distance; and where 

 our feeble strength Avould scarcely weigh a grain in either balance, but 

 might inevitably involve us in self-destruction? 



What avails it that we are delivered from one late and great calamity, 

 if we are not delivered from sin, which is the greatest calamity of all? 



What avails it that God hath blessed us with a fruitful country, a 

 happy climate and bountiful seasons, if, instead of industry, moderation 

 of mind, thankfulness to heaven and a due improvement of His bles- 

 sings, we are sapping the foundations of all our future happiness as a 



