We have also been equally preserved from the dire judgments of famine, pestilence, earthquakes, and desolating hurricanes: plenty, health, and a serene and temperate climate have been vouchsafed us: a land abounding with all the blessings that we can desire, and exempted from most of the calamities to which other lands are exposed, hath fallen to our lot: and let us not so regard second causes, as to forget the first great Cause of all, who "doeth what he will in the armies of heaven, "and among the inhabitants of the earth.”

We might here enlarge on the blessings of our excellent constitution and equal laws; by which the personal liberty and property of every individual are secured, if not to the greatest degree which is possible in the present state of human nature, yet, at least, beyond what hath hitherto been reduced to practice, for a length of time, in any nation of the earth. A great deal is often said of Grecian and Roman liberty: but it is well known that a very large proportion of the people, in those admired nations, were slaves, the property of their masters; and equal freedom was not possessed among them, in any measure comparable to what it is in Britain.'

At Athens, when there were no more than twenty thousand citizens and ten thousand strangers; there were four hundred thousand slaves! (Harwood, p. 19.) It would be as rational to extol West Indian liberty, as the liberty of Greece; for at Lacedemon, the number of freemen was more disproportionate and the slaves more cruelly used.

But these are comparatively inferior considerations: our religious advantages are principally to be valued. When "the Son of GOD was mani"fested to destroy the works of the devil," this land was inveloped in the grossest idolatry, barbarity, and ignorance; yet it was not long before the Sun of Righteousness, which arose at so great a distance, visited it with his sacred beams of life and salvation. After a time, the superstitions and usurpations of the Romish chuch, like a dark cloud, obscured this heavenly light; but the first dawning of the blessed reformation extended its influence into this island, and our progenitors were numbered among those favoured nations which were first emancipated from that slavery, and delivered from that gross darkness that had long oppressed the western world. Others, after an ineffectual struggle, and much bloodshed, were again reduced to bondage, under the persecuting tyranny of the pontiff and his associates; this land, in the reign of bloody Mary, was in peculiar danger of falling again under the same yoke; but GOD preserved his light among us by removing her, and advancing Elizabeth to the throne; and, after defeating the subtle and powerful machinations of our enemies, in various instances, he at length, by a happy revolution at the close of the last century, established among us a degree of civil and religious liberty, which hath

rendered us the admiration or envy of all our neighbours.

Whilst, therefore, the nations, to which the gospel was first vouchsafed, are reduced to the most deplorable ignorance, this distant region is enlightened with the beams of heavenly truth. An excellent translation of the sacred Scriptures into our own language, is put into our hands, and we are allowed, invited, and encouraged to read it. Copies of the Bible are so common and cheap, that almost every person may afford to purchase one; and if any cannot, or will not, spare a trifle for this purpose, blessed be GoD, there are persons disposed to give it to them; nay, if any know not how to read the Word of Life; there are those who are ready to pay for their instruction, provided they are but willing to learn. So that none can plead that they are wholly destitute of the means of being made wise unto eternal salvation. At the dawning of the reformation, our ancestors were thankful for a few leaves of the holy Scriptures in an imperfect English translation, and read them with the greatest avidity. When Bibles were first placed in the churches, the people thronged to hear them read, with an eagerness of which we have little conception; and in some parts of Wales, at present, Bibles in the Welsh language are so scarce, that frequently several families jointly possess one, and have it a week at a time in rotation. This should teach us to value our privileges, that

scarcity may not make the word of GOD precious to us. A great variety also of other pious books are circulated at very low prices, and even gratis, which are suited to excite men's attention to the Bible, and to assist them in understanding it. At the same time, no restraint is imposed on the preachers of God's word; nor are any forbidden to attend on their instructions; and numbers, in almost all parts of the land are employed in publishing the glad tidings of salvation, with a clearness and plainness that hath seldom been exceeded. So that we are peculiarly favoured with every advantage for becoming wise, holy, and happy. This hath been our felicity for a long course of years; and when we consider how scarce in comparison copies of the Scripture were in Israel, and how much darker their dispensation was, than that of the gospel, we shall be constrained to allow, that they did not possess religious privileges, even equal to those of our favoured land. So that the LORD may well demand of us, "What could have been done more "for us, that hath not been done," as a proper means of rendering us a religious and a righteous nation? This leads us to enquire,

II. The improvement which we ought to have made of our advantages?

The LORD looks for grapes from this well-cultured vine; he requires righteousness and judgment from a people so highly favoured. It might

have been expected that all orders among us, from the highest to the lowest, would, in their publick and private conduct, have manifested a serious regard to the truths, precepts, ordinances, providence, and glory of GoD. Sobriety, temperance, chastity, justice, truth, peace, and love, should have been observable in our national character, and in all our transactions. They that come among us, and they among whom we go, should have been constrained to confess, that probity, sincerity, humanity, piety, meckness, and purity, were found in the conduct of Britons more than in any other nation. Impiety and immorality should at least have been discountenanced, driven into corners, put to shame, or dragged out to condign punishment; and it should have been shewn, by all our laws, legislators, magistrates, and publick measures at home and abroad, as well as in the conduct of the inferior orders, and of those enployed in the sacred ministry, that we were a nation "fearing GOD and working righteousness;" a wise and understanding people, whom God had chosen to himself, for his own inheritance.— Who can deny that this ought to have been our national character? Who can excuse what is contrary to this, without palliating ingratitude, as well as impiety and iniquity? Or who can account for it, without allowing that the heart of man is deceitful and desperately wicked?