come to offer unto God thanksgiving:

We come to celebrate his recent benefits: We come to kindle on the altar of common gratitude the mingled incense of our praise.

But where, may some ask, where is the propriety of bringing, at this time, the sacrifices of joyfulness? Is Jehovah's controversy with our guilty land completely removed? Is his anger turned away, and his hand stretched our no longer? Have our citizens, breaking off their sins by repentance, returned to him from whom they have deeply revolted? From his judgments which are abroad in the earth, do they appear to have learned righteousness? And has the Spirit of grace shed down the large effusion of his quickening and purifying influence? Would to God, my brethren, that facts could warrant a prompt and exulting affirmative. But truth obliges us to confess, with blushes, that we have little reason to boast of rectified principle and new obedience. We are still a sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evil-doers; children that are corrupters; we have forsaken the Lord; we have provoked the Holy One of Israel or anger; we have gone away backward. It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed. But this cannot supersede the necessity, nor lessen the propriety, of thanksgiving. It is rather one of the most cogent

reasons for singing aloud of his mercy. Besides, we are to consider, that within a short time the procedure of holy Providence, contrary to our most distressing fears, hath, in matters intimately affecting our happiness, assumed a more favorable aspect. Therefore, although we are not authorized to conclude that the Lord is pacified towards us for all that we have done, yet we may and ought to utter abundantly the memory of his goodness; we may and ought to thank him, and thank him publicly, that he hath not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.

The text, which significantly describes our condition, asserts, that God hath not treated us according to our desert; and strongly implies that this dispensation is replete with singular kindness; subjects which lead to discussion profitable in itself, and obviously corresponding with the design of this day.

1. Let us endeavor to be deeply impressed with the fact, that the Lord hath not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.

How numerous our sins are, how black their atrocity, how peculiar and malignant their aggravations, it is neither my intention nor my business to state. This would lead us again over the ground of which, not long ago,

we had occasion to take a sorrowful review. That we have merited those varied plagues by which the Eternal scourges a rebellious and stiff-necked people, we may not deny, for we have already confessed. The symptoms of their approach startled the most thoughtless; our hearts throbbed with painful apprehension; and we hastened to the mercy-seat to deprecate those evils of which even the remote appearance filled us with terror. That he hath had compassion; that in wrath he hath remembered mercy, we are all witnesses; for we are all living monuments of his forbearance. The gathering darkness hath not been permitted to concentrate and pour down its tempest. It hath ceased, in part, to overcloud our sky; and, in some degree at least, hath yielded to brighter prospects.

Without-dwelling minutely on that kind interposition which hath checked the ravages of disease, hath calmed the tumult of the presaging breast, and recalled to languishing multitudes the glow and the vigors of healthwithout expatiating on the successes which have attended an enterprise against the western foe: successes that make some amends for the dishonor and loss of former defeats; and encourage us to hope for a solid and permanent peace, which may prevent the effusion

of blood hereafter; without insisting on any of those things which, however estimable, occupy a middle or inferior place in the scale of national benefit, allow me to direct your attention to two distinguishing blessings; preservation from foreign war, and deliverance from domestic discord.

It is a mysterious arrangement of the government of God, by which he makes one sin the corrective and the punishment of another. If nation rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; if dissensions grow into animosities; and animosities, inflamed by mutual irritation, break out into open and destructive hostility; let it not be supposed that such deplorable events proceed merely from the jarring interests, and jarring passions of men. Ambition of power, the fascinations of grandeur, or the lust of fame, often set the world on fire, and swell the huge catalogue of human miseries. Wars and fightings come from our lusts. But in these disasters a higher agency is concerned. God, who sitteth upon the floods, God, whose kingdom ruleth over all; God, who causeth even the wrath of man to praise him, marks out the path of the warrior, selects the objects of his prowess, and fixes the bounds of his triumph. His design may be evil; his aggressions unprovoked, and, from him unmerit

ed, by those against whom they are directed; every step of his procedure may be scored with crimes; and yet God, unimpeachably righteous, brings light out of this darkness; by such evil instruments accomplishes wise, and good, and holy ends; and when he has accomplished them, he visits the iniquities of the instruments themselves, and breaks them to pieces with his rod of iron. The truth is painted in strong colors by the prophet Isaiah: O Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, and the staff in their hand is mine indignation. I will send him against a hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets. Howbeit, he meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think so ; but it is in his heart to destroy and cut off nations not a few. Wherefore, it shall come to pass, that when the Lord hath performed his whole work upon Mount Zion, and on Jerusalem, I will punish the fruit of the stout heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory of his high looks. For he saith, By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom; for I am prudent: and I have removed the bounds of the people, and I have put down the inhabitants like a valiant man. And my hand hath found, as a nest, the riches of the people: and as one gathereth eggs that are left, have I gath